eenvsEfeuWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: een is a num, Efeu is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“een” is a num and “Efeu” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,012
“een” frequency rank
#48,090
“Efeu” frequency rank
81102
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature een Efeu
Definition eins; einer; ein einziger Pflanzengattung aus der Familie der Araliengewächse (Araliaceae)

Letter map: een vs Efeu

Shared letters muted; letters that set een and Efeu apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. een runs 3 letters (VVC) against Efeu's 4 (VCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
een
4 ch
Efeu

Part-of-speech tell for een / Efeu

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: een is anum and Efeuanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

een is recorded at frequency rank #33,012, classified as anum, pronounced […]. Efeu is at rank #48,090, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈeːfɔɪ̯].

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 81102, this pair ranks #182,231 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of een vs Efeu

Shared letters: e. Private to "een": n. Private to "Efeu": fu.

"een" · 3 letters · shape VVC  ·  "Efeu" · 4 letters · shape VCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Efeu ← eefu · effeu · efue · feeu

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "een" and "Efeu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "een" is a num and "Efeu" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "een" or "Efeu"?
"een" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,012 in our German list, against #48,090 for "Efeu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "een" and "Efeu".

  • Full dictionary entry for "een" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Efeu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #182,231 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "een" and "Efeu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Efeu vs Elfe". 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 #182,231 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