easyvserstWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: easy is a adjective, erst is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“easy” is an adjective and “erst” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,161
“easy” frequency rank
#159
“erst” frequency rank
7320
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature easy erst
Definition keine besondere Herausforderung darstellend zuvor, vorher

Where the eye mixes easy and erst

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
easy
4 ch
erst

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: easy is [ˈiːzi] while erst is [eːɐ̯st]. 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 (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7320, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

easy is recorded at frequency rank #7,161, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈiːzi]. erst is at rank #159, tagged as anadv, pronounced [eːɐ̯st].

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 7320, this pair ranks #1,988,588 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of easy vs erst

Shared letters: es. Private to "easy": ay. Private to "erst": rt.

"easy" · 4 letters · shape VVCV  ·  "erst" · 4 letters · shape VCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • easyaesy · eassy · easyy · eays · esay
  • ersterrst · ersst · erstt · erts · esrt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "easy" and "erst" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "easy" is an adjective and "erst" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "easy" or "erst"?
"erst" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #159 in our German list, against #7,161 for "easy". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "easy" and "erst". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "easy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "erst" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,988,588 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "easy" and "erst" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eam vs easy". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list