effektivevseffektivenTell them apart

Which to use

“effektive” and “effektiven” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#11,416
“effektive” frequency rank
#20,224
“effektiven” frequency rank
31640
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature effektive effektiven
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs effektiv Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs effektiv

Where the eye mixes effektive and effektiven

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

9 ch
effektive
10 ch
effektiven

Why the eye confuses effektive with effektiven

A purely visual mix-up. effektive ([ɛfɛkˈtiːvə]) and effektiven ([ɛfɛkˈtiːvn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “effektive” sits inside “effektiven”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31640, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

effektive is recorded at frequency rank #11,416, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɛfɛkˈtiːvə]. effektiven is at rank #20,224, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɛfɛkˈtiːvn̩].

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 31640, this pair ranks #1,724,082 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of effektive vs effektiven

Shared letters: efiktv. Private to "effektive": -. Private to "effektiven": n.

"effektive" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV  ·  "effektiven" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • effektiveefefktive · efektive · effekitve · effekktive · effektiev · effektivve · effekttive · effektvie
  • effektivenefefktiven · efektiven · effekitven · effekktiven · effektievn · effektivenn · effektivne · effektivven

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "effektive" and "effektiven" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ɛfɛkˈtiːvə] versus [ɛfɛkˈtiːvn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "effektive" vs "effektiven" - which ranks higher?
"effektive" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,416 in our German list, against #20,224 for "effektiven". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "effektive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "effektiven" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,724,082 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "effektive" and "effektiven" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "effektiven vs effektives". 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 #1,724,082 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