earlyvseasyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“early” and “easy” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#14,784
“early” frequency rank
#7,161
“easy” frequency rank
21945
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature early easy
Definition zeitig, eher ankommen keine besondere Herausforderung darstellend

Where the eye mixes early and easy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
early
4 ch
easy

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. early ([ˈɜː(ɹ).li]) and easy ([ˈiːzi]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21945, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

early is recorded at frequency rank #14,784, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈɜː(ɹ).li]. easy is at rank #7,161, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈiːzi].

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 21945, this pair ranks #1,880,262 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of early vs easy

Shared letters: aey. Private to "early": lr. Private to "easy": s.

"early" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV  ·  "easy" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • earlyaerly · ealry · earlly · earlyy · earrly · earyl · eraly
  • easyaesy · eassy · easyy · eays · esay

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "early" and "easy" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈɜː(ɹ).li] versus [ˈiːzi]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "early" or "easy"?
"easy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,161 in our German list, against #14,784 for "early". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list