ekvseoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ek is a preposition, eo is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#23,492
“ek” frequency rank
#48,849
“eo” frequency rank
72341
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ek eo
Definition aus einem Gebiet oder Raum heraus/hinaus dahin, dorthin

Letter map: ek vs eo

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

2 ch
ek
2 ch
eo

Role in the sentence - ek and eo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ek is apreposition and eoanadverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - k in “ek” becomes o in “eo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72341, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ek is recorded at frequency rank #23,492, classified as aprep, pronounced [ɛk]. 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 72341, this pair ranks #391,044 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ek vs eo

Shared letters: e. Private to "ek": k. Private to "eo": o.

"ek" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "eo" · 2 letters · shape VV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ek" for "eo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ek" is a preposition and "eo" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ek" or "eo" show up more?
"ek" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,492 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

You've compared "ek" and "eo". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ek" 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 #391,044 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ek" and "eo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eo vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #391,044 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