EckevsengeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Ecke is a noun, enge is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#1,806
“Ecke” frequency rank
#3,724
“enge” frequency rank
5530
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ecke enge
Definition Punkt, in welchem zwei begrenzende Linien einer Fläche beziehungsweise drei oder mehr Grenzflächen eines Körpers zusammenstoßen Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs eng

Where the eye mixes Ecke and enge

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

4 ch
Ecke
4 ch
enge

Visual trap between Ecke and enge

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ecke is [ˈɛkə] while enge is [ˈɛŋə]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5530, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ecke is recorded at frequency rank #1,806, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɛkə]. enge is at rank #3,724, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɛŋə].

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 5530, this pair ranks #1,994,488 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Ecke vs enge

Shared letters: e. Private to "Ecke": ck. Private to "enge": gn.

"Ecke" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "enge" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Eckeceke · eccke · ecek · eckke · ekce
  • engeegne · eneg · engge · ennge · nege

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Ecke" for "enge" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ecke" is a noun and "enge" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Ecke" vs "enge" - which ranks higher?
"Ecke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,806 in our German list, against #3,724 for "enge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ecke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,994,488 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ecke" and "enge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enge 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 #1,994,488 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