eenvsehrenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#33,012
“een” frequency rank
#3,882
“ehren” frequency rank
36894
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature een ehren
Definition eins; einer; ein einziger jemanden hoch schätzen; Hochachtung zeigen

Letter map: een vs ehren

Shared letters muted; letters that set een and ehren apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
een
5 ch
ehren

Role in the sentence - een and ehren

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: een is anum and ehrenaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

een is recorded at frequency rank #33,012, classified as anum, pronounced […]. ehren is at rank #3,882, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈeːʁən].

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 36894, this pair ranks #1,604,017 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of een vs ehren

Shared letters: en. Private to "een": -. Private to "ehren": hr.

"een" · 3 letters · shape VVC  ·  "ehren" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ehrenehern · ehhren · ehrenn · ehrne · erhen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "een" and "ehren" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "een" is a num and "ehren" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "een" or "ehren" show up more?
"ehren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,882 in our German list, against #33,012 for "een". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "een" vs "ehren" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "een" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ehren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,604,017 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "een" and "ehren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "een vs puzzles". 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 #1,604,017 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