eglivseiligWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: egli is a pronoun, eilig is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“egli” is a pronoun and “eilig” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,875
“egli” frequency rank
#12,485
“eilig” frequency rank
58360
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature egli eilig
Definition er in Eile, rasch

Where the eye mixes egli and eilig

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

4 ch
egli
5 ch
eilig

Visual trap between egli and eilig

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: egli is [ˈeʎʎi] while eilig is [ˈaɪ̯lɪç]. 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 (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

egli is recorded at frequency rank #45,875, classified as apron, pronounced [ˈeʎʎi]. eilig is at rank #12,485, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯lɪç].

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 58360, this pair ranks #865,807 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of egli vs eilig

Shared letters: egil. Private to "egli": -. Private to "eilig": -.

"egli" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "eilig" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eglieggli · eglli · elgi
  • eiligeiilg · eilgi · eiligg · eillig · eliig · ielig

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "egli" and "eilig" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "egli" is a pronoun and "eilig" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "egli" or "eilig"?
"eilig" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,485 in our German list, against #45,875 for "egli". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "egli" and "eilig" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "egli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "eilig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #865,807 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "egli" and "eilig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "egli 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 #865,807 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