ebenvseeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: eben is a adjective, ee is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#357
“eben” frequency rank
#18,519
“ee” frequency rank
18876
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eben ee
Definition parallel zu einer gleichmäßig flachen Erdoberfläche; horizontal verlaufend, liegend; waagerecht Sinnesorgan zum Sehen; Auge

Where the eye mixes eben and ee

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

4 ch
eben
2 ch
ee

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: eben is [ˈeːbn̩] while ee is [iː]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18876, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eben is recorded at frequency rank #357, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈeːbn̩]. ee is at rank #18,519, tagged as anoun, pronounced [iː].

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 18876, this pair ranks #1,913,978 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of eben vs ee

Shared letters: e. Private to "eben": bn. Private to "ee": -.

"eben" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ee" · 2 letters · shape VV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ebenebben · ebenn · ebne · eebn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "eben" and "ee" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "eben" is an adjective and "ee" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "eben" or "ee"?
"eben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #357 in our German list, against #18,519 for "ee". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list