ehemaligevsehemaligenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,023
“ehemalige” frequency rank
#1,589
“ehemaligen” frequency rank
3612
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ehemalige ehemaligen
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs ehemalig Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs ehemalig

Where the eye mixes ehemalige and ehemaligen

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

9 ch
ehemalige
10 ch
ehemaligen

Look-alike desk: ehemalige vs ehemaligen

A purely visual mix-up. ehemalige ([ˈeːəˌmaːlɪɡə]) and ehemaligen ([ˈeːəˌmaːlɪɡn̩]) 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) - “ehemalige” sits inside “ehemaligen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3612, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ehemalige is recorded at frequency rank #2,023, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈeːəˌmaːlɪɡə]. ehemaligen is at rank #1,589, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈeːəˌmaːlɪɡn̩].

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 3612, this pair ranks #1,999,798 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ehemalige vs ehemaligen

Shared letters: aeghilm. Private to "ehemalige": -. Private to "ehemaligen": n.

"ehemalige" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCVCV  ·  "ehemaligen" · 10 letters · shape VCVCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ehemaligeeehmalige · eheamlige · ehemailge · ehemalgie · ehemalieg · ehemaligge · ehemallige · ehemlaige
  • ehemaligeneehmaligen · eheamligen · ehemailgen · ehemalgien · ehemaliegn · ehemaligenn · ehemaliggen · ehemaligne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ehemalige" and "ehemaligen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈeːəˌmaːlɪɡə] versus [ˈeːəˌmaːlɪɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "ehemalige" or "ehemaligen" show up more?
"ehemaligen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,589 in our German list, against #2,023 for "ehemalige". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ehemalige" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ehemaligen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,999,798 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ehemalige" and "ehemaligen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ehemalige vs ehemaliges". 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 #1,999,798 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