EignervseinemTell them apart

Quick tell: Eigner is a noun, einem is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Eigner” is a noun and “einem” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,971
“Eigner” frequency rank
#57
“einem” frequency rank
26028
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Eigner einem
Definition Person, die Eigentümer von etwas ist [1] Dativ Singular Maskulinum des unbestimmten Artikels ein

Where the eye mixes Eigner and einem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Eigner
5 ch
einem

Why the eye confuses Eigner with einem

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Eigner is [ˈaɪ̯ɡnɐ] while einem is [ˈaɪ̯nəm]. 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 (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26028, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Eigner is recorded at frequency rank #25,971, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯ɡnɐ]. einem is at rank #57, tagged as adet, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯nəm].

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 26028, this pair ranks #1,824,308 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Eigner vs einem

Shared letters: ein. Private to "Eigner": gr. Private to "einem": m.

"Eigner" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC  ·  "einem" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Eignereginer · eigenr · eiggner · eignerr · eignner · eignre · einger · iegner
  • einemeienm · einemm · einme · einnem · eniem · ienem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Eigner" for "einem" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Eigner" is a noun and "einem" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Eigner" or "einem" show up more?
"einem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #57 in our German list, against #25,971 for "Eigner". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Eigner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "einem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,824,308 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Eigner" and "einem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Eigner vs eignete". 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 #1,824,308 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