eiltenvsElitenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: eilten is a verb, Eliten is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“eilten” is a verb and “Eliten” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,547
“eilten” frequency rank
#14,050
“Eliten” frequency rank
58597
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eilten Eliten
Definition 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs eilen Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Elite

Where the eye mixes eilten and Eliten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. eilten (VVCCVC) and Eliten (VCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
eilten
6 ch
Eliten

Look-alike desk: eilten vs Eliten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: eilten is [ˈaɪ̯ltn̩] while Eliten is [eˈliːtn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (il ↔ li) - a transposition the eye reads straight past, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58597, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eilten is recorded at frequency rank #44,547, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯ltn̩]. Eliten is at rank #14,050, tagged as anoun, pronounced [eˈliːtn̩].

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 58597, this pair ranks #856,678 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of eilten vs Eliten

Shared letters: eilnt. Private to "eilten": -. Private to "Eliten": -.

"eilten" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC  ·  "Eliten" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eilten ← eiletn · eillten · eiltenn · eiltne · eiltten · eitlen · ielten
  • Eliten ← elietn · elitenn · elitne · elitten · elliten · eltien

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "eilten" and "Eliten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "eilten" is a verb and "Eliten" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "eilten" or "Eliten" show up more?
"Eliten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,050 in our German list, against #44,547 for "eilten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "eilten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Eliten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #856,678 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eilten" and "Eliten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eilten vs Exoten". 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 #856,678 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