EignervsewigerTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#25,971
“Eigner” frequency rank
#24,708
“ewiger” frequency rank
50679
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Eigner ewiger
Definition Person, die Eigentümer von etwas ist Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs ewig

Where the eye mixes Eigner and ewiger

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Eigner
6 ch
ewiger

Why the eye confuses Eigner with ewiger

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Eigner is [ˈaɪ̯ɡnɐ] while ewiger is [ˈeːvɪɡɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50679, 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]. 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 50679, this pair ranks #1,164,625 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Eigner vs ewiger

Shared letters: egir. Private to "Eigner": n. Private to "ewiger": w.

"Eigner" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC  ·  "ewiger" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Eignereginer · eigenr · eiggner · eignerr · eignner · eignre · einger · iegner
  • ewigereiwger · ewgier · ewiegr · ewigerr · ewigger · ewigre · ewwiger · weiger

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Eigner" for "ewiger" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Eigner" is a noun and "ewiger" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Eigner" or "ewiger" show up more?
"ewiger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,708 in our German list, against #25,971 for "Eigner". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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 "ewiger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,164,625 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Eigner" and "ewiger" 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 #1,164,625 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