eamvsearConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#48,085
“eam” frequency rank
#34,054
“ear” frequency rank
82139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eam ear
Definition Akkusativ Singular Femininum des Pronomens is das Ohr

Letter map: eam vs ear

Shared letters muted; letters that set eam and ear apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. eam and ear follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
eam
3 ch
ear

Role in the sentence - eam and ear

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: eam is anunknown and earanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - m in “eam” becomes r in “ear”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eam is recorded at frequency rank #48,085, classified as anunknown, pronounced […]. ear is at rank #34,054, tagged as anoun, pronounced [iːə(ɹ)].

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 82139, this pair ranks #162,633 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of eam vs ear

Shared letters: ae. Private to "eam": m. Private to "ear": r.

"eam" · 3 letters · shape VVC  ·  "ear" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "eam" for "ear" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "eam" is an unknown and "ear" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "eam" or "ear" show up more?
"ear" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,054 in our German list, against #48,085 for "eam". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "eam" vs "ear" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "eam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ear" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,633 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eam" and "ear" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eam vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #162,633 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