ebenvsEmdenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#357
“eben” frequency rank
#14,051
“Emden” frequency rank
14408
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eben Emden
Definition parallel zu einer gleichmäßig flachen Erdoberfläche; horizontal verlaufend, liegend; waagerecht eine Stadt in Niedersachsen, Deutschland

Where the eye mixes eben and Emden

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
eben
5 ch
Emden

Look-alike desk: eben vs Emden

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: eben is [ˈeːbn̩] while Emden is [ˈɛmdn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14408, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eben is recorded at frequency rank #357, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈeːbn̩]. Emden is at rank #14,051, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈɛmdn̩].

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 14408, this pair ranks #1,951,412 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of eben vs Emden

Shared letters: en. Private to "eben": b. Private to "Emden": dm.

"eben" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "Emden" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ebenebben · ebenn · ebne · eebn
  • Emdenedmen · emdden · emdenn · emdne · emedn · emmden · meden

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "eben" and "Emden" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "eben" is an adjective and "Emden" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "eben" or "Emden" show up more?
"eben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #357 in our German list, against #14,051 for "Emden". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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 "Emden" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,951,412 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eben" and "Emden" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Emden 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 #1,951,412 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