eatvsEisWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: eat is a verb, Eis is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“eat” is a verb and “Eis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,099
“eat” frequency rank
#2,144
“Eis” frequency rank
27243
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eat Eis
Definition essen Wasser im festen Aggregatzustand; gefrorenes Wasser

Where the eye mixes eat and Eis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
eat
3 ch
Eis

Visual trap between eat and Eis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: eat is [iːt] while Eis is [aɪ̯s]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27243, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eat is recorded at frequency rank #25,099, classified as averb, pronounced [iːt]. Eis is at rank #2,144, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aɪ̯s].

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 27243, this pair ranks #1,804,928 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of eat vs Eis

Shared letters: e. Private to "eat": at. Private to "Eis": is.

"eat" · 3 letters · shape VVC  ·  "Eis" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "eat" for "Eis" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "eat" is a verb and "Eis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "eat" or "Eis"?
"Eis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,144 in our German list, against #25,099 for "eat". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "eat" and "Eis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "eat" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Eis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,804,928 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eat" and "Eis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eat vs eo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,804,928 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