eil vs eo, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“eil” is a verb and “eo” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,151
“eil” frequency rank: #48,849
“eo” frequency rank: 84000
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	eil	eo
Definition	2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs eilen	dahin, dorthin

Letter map: eil vs eo

Shared letters muted; letters that set eil and eo apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

eil

2 ch

Role in the sentence - eil and eo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: eil is averb and eoanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84000, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eil is recorded at frequency rank #35,151, classified as averb, pronounced [aɪ̯l]. eo is at rank #48,849, tagged as anadv, pronounced […].

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 84000, this pair ranks #130,727 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of eil vs eo

Shared letters: e. Private to "eil": il. Private to "eo": o.

"eil" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "eo" · 2 letters · shape VV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "eil" and "eo" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "eil" is a verb and "eo" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "eil" or "eo" show up more?

"eil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,151 in our German list, against #48,849 for "eo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "eil" vs "eo" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "eil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "eo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #130,727 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"eil" and "eo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eo vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #130,727 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.