ebenvsebendaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#357
“eben” frequency rank
#9,354
“ebenda” frequency rank
9711
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eben ebenda
Definition parallel zu einer gleichmäßig flachen Erdoberfläche; horizontal verlaufend, liegend; waagerecht genau an der eben schon erwähnten Stelle, gerade dort

Where the eye mixes eben and ebenda

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. eben runs 4 letters (VCVC) against ebenda's 6 (VCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
eben
6 ch
ebenda

Why the eye confuses eben with ebenda

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: eben is [ˈeːbn̩] while ebenda is [ˈeːbn̩daː]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “eben” sits inside “ebenda”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9711, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eben is recorded at frequency rank #357, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈeːbn̩]. ebenda is at rank #9,354, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈeːbn̩daː].

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 9711, this pair ranks #1,978,658 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of eben vs ebenda

Shared letters: ben. Private to "eben": -. Private to "ebenda": ad.

"eben" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ebenda" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ebenebben · ebenn · ebne · eebn
  • ebendabeenda · ebbenda · ebedna · ebenad · ebendda · ebennda · ebneda · eebnda

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "eben" for "ebenda" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "eben" is an adjective and "ebenda" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "eben" or "ebenda" show up more?
"eben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #357 in our German list, against #9,354 for "ebenda". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "eben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ebenda" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,978,658 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eben" and "ebenda" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eben vs Eupen". 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 #1,978,658 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