eavsebWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ea is a unknown, eb is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ea” is an unknown and “eb” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,458
“ea” frequency rank
#24,681
“eb” frequency rank
35139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ea eb
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum des Pronomens is (der) Hund m

Letter map: ea vs eb

Shared letters muted; letters that set ea and eb apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
ea
2 ch
eb

Grammar separator: ea vs eb

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ea is anunknown and ebanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “ea” becomes b in “eb”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ea is recorded at frequency rank #10,458, classified as anunknown, pronounced […]. eb is at rank #24,681, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɛb].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 35139, this pair ranks #1,647,132 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ea vs eb

Shared letters: e. Private to "ea": a. Private to "eb": b.

"ea" · 2 letters · shape VV  ·  "eb" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ea" for "eb" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ea" is an unknown and "eb" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ea" or "eb"?
"ea" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,458 in our German list, against #24,681 for "eb". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ea" and "eb".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "eb" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,647,132 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ea" and "eb" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eb vs eo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,647,132 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list