EiervsewigerConfusable pair

Quick tell: Eier is a noun, ewiger is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Eier” is a noun and “ewiger” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,440
“Eier” frequency rank
#24,708
“ewiger” frequency rank
27148
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Eier ewiger
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Ei Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs ewig

Where the eye mixes Eier and ewiger

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Eier runs 4 letters (VVVC) against ewiger's 6 (VCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Eier
6 ch
ewiger

Visual trap between Eier and ewiger

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Eier is [ˈaɪ̯ɐ] while ewiger is [ˈeːvɪɡɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27148, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Eier is recorded at frequency rank #2,440, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯ɐ]. ewiger is at rank #24,708, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈeːvɪɡɐ].

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 27148, this pair ranks #1,806,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Eier vs ewiger

Shared letters: eir. Private to "Eier": -. Private to "ewiger": gw.

"Eier" · 4 letters · shape VVVC  ·  "ewiger" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Eier ← eeir · eierr · eire · ieer
  • ewiger ← eiwger · ewgier · ewiegr · ewigerr · ewigger · ewigre · ewwiger · weiger

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Eier" for "ewiger" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Eier" is a noun and "ewiger" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Eier" or "ewiger" show up more?
"Eier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,440 in our German list, against #24,708 for "ewiger". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Eier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ewiger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,806,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Eier" and "ewiger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "etwaiger vs ewiger". 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 #1,806,545 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