ehervseveryWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: eher is a adverb, every is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“eher” is an adverb and “every” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#408
“eher” frequency rank
#18,231
“every” frequency rank
18639
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eher every
Definition zu einem früheren Zeitpunkt jeder

Where the eye mixes eher and every

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

4 ch
eher
5 ch
every

Look-alike desk: eher vs every

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: eher is [ˈeːɐ] while every is [ˈɛvɹi]. 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 (adverb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18639, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eher is recorded at frequency rank #408, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈeːɐ]. every is at rank #18,231, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɛvɹi].

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 18639, this pair ranks #1,916,343 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of eher vs every

Shared letters: er. Private to "eher": h. Private to "every": vy.

"eher" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "every" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ehereehr · eherr · ehher
  • everyeevry · everry · everyy · eveyr · evrey · evvery · veery

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "eher" and "every" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "eher" is an adverb and "every" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "eher" or "every"?
"eher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #408 in our German list, against #18,231 for "every". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "eher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "every" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,916,343 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eher" and "every" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Eber vs every". 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 #1,916,343 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