EastervserstemWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Easter is a name, erstem is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Easter” is a name and “erstem” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,086
“Easter” frequency rank
#18,228
“erstem” frequency rank
66314
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Easter erstem
Definition wichtigstes Fest im Christentum in Erinnerung an die Auferstehung von Jesus von Nazaret Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs erste

Where the eye mixes Easter and erstem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Easter
6 ch
erstem

Look-alike desk: Easter vs erstem

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Easter is [ˈiːstə] while erstem is [ˈeːɐ̯stəm]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66314, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Easter is recorded at frequency rank #48,086, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈiːstə]. erstem is at rank #18,228, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈeːɐ̯stəm].

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 66314, this pair ranks #577,514 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Easter vs erstem

Shared letters: erst. Private to "Easter": a. Private to "erstem": m.

"Easter" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC  ·  "erstem" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Easteraester · easetr · easster · easterr · eastre · eastter · eatser · esater
  • erstemerrstem · ersetm · ersstem · erstemm · erstme · ersttem · ertsem · esrtem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Easter" for "erstem" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Easter" is a name and "erstem" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Easter" or "erstem"?
"erstem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,228 in our German list, against #48,086 for "Easter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Easter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "erstem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #577,514 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Easter" and "erstem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Easter vs Euter". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #577,514 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