engemvsEnkelTell them apart

Quick tell: engem is a adjective, Enkel is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#24,695
“engem” frequency rank
#6,291
“Enkel” frequency rank
30986
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature engem Enkel
Definition Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs eng (männliches) Kind des eigenen Sohnes oder der eigenen Tochter

Where the eye mixes engem and Enkel

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. engem and Enkel follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
engem
5 ch
Enkel

Why the eye confuses engem with Enkel

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: engem is [ˈɛŋəm] while Enkel is [ˈɛŋkl̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30986, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

engem is recorded at frequency rank #24,695, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈɛŋəm]. Enkel is at rank #6,291, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɛŋkl̩].

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 30986, this pair ranks #1,737,052 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of engem vs Enkel

Shared letters: en. Private to "engem": gm. Private to "Enkel": kl.

"engem" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "Enkel" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • engem ← egnem · enegm · engemm · enggem · engme · enngem · negem
  • Enkel ← eknel · enekl · enkell · enkkel · enkle · ennkel · nekel

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "engem" and "Enkel" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "engem" is an adjective and "Enkel" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "engem" vs "Enkel" - which ranks higher?
"Enkel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,291 in our German list, against #24,695 for "engem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "engem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Enkel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,737,052 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "engem" and "Enkel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "engem vs engstem". 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 #1,737,052 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