emotionalvsemotionalesTell them apart

Which to use

“emotional” and “emotionales” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,654
“emotional” frequency rank
#34,065
“emotionales” frequency rank
40719
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature emotional emotionales
Definition mit Gefühlen (Emotionen) zu tun habend Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs emotional

Where the eye mixes emotional and emotionales

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. emotional runs 9 letters (VCVCVVCVC) against emotionales's 11 (VCVCVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
emotional
11 ch
emotionales

Why the eye confuses emotional with emotionales

A purely visual mix-up. emotional ([ˌemot͡si̯oˈnaːl]) and emotionales ([ˌemot͡si̯oˈnaːləs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “emotional” sits inside “emotionales”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40719, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

emotional is recorded at frequency rank #6,654, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˌemot͡si̯oˈnaːl]. emotionales is at rank #34,065, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˌemot͡si̯oˈnaːləs].

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 40719, this pair ranks #1,500,367 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of emotional vs emotionales

Shared letters: aeilmnot. Private to "emotional": -. Private to "emotionales": s.

"emotional" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVVCVC  ·  "emotionales" · 11 letters · shape VCVCVVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • emotionalemmotional · emoitonal · emotinoal · emotioanl · emotionall · emotionla · emotionnal · emotoinal
  • emotionalesemmotionales · emoitonales · emotinoales · emotioanles · emotionaels · emotionaless · emotionalles · emotionalse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "emotional" and "emotionales" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˌemot͡si̯oˈnaːl] versus [ˌemot͡si̯oˈnaːləs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "emotional" or "emotionales" show up more?
"emotional" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,654 in our German list, against #34,065 for "emotionales". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "emotional" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "emotionales" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,500,367 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "emotional" and "emotionales" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "emotionaler vs emotionales". 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 #1,500,367 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