echtevsEnteTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#1,691
“echte” frequency rank
#10,642
“Ente” frequency rank
12333
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature echte Ente
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs echt kleinerer Wasservogel aus der Familie der Entenvögel (Anatidae), speziell

Where the eye mixes echte and Ente

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

5 ch
echte
4 ch
Ente

Look-alike desk: echte vs Ente

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: echte is [ˈɛçtə] while Ente is [ˈɛntə]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12333, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

echte is recorded at frequency rank #1,691, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈɛçtə]. Ente is at rank #10,642, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɛntə].

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 12333, this pair ranks #1,964,794 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of echte vs Ente

Shared letters: et. Private to "echte": ch. Private to "Ente": n.

"echte" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV  ·  "Ente" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • echtecehte · ecchte · echet · echhte · echtte · ecthe · ehcte
  • Enteenet · ennte · etne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "echte" and "Ente" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "echte" is an adjective and "Ente" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "echte" vs "Ente" - which ranks higher?
"echte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,691 in our German list, against #10,642 for "Ente". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "echte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,964,794 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "echte" and "Ente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ente vs Erle". 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 #1,964,794 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