engerenvsergebenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,351
“engeren” frequency rank
#2,244
“ergeben” frequency rank
15595
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature engeren ergeben
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Komparativs des Adjektivs eng bereit, jemandem zu dienen

Where the eye mixes engeren and ergeben

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. engeren and ergeben follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
engeren
7 ch
ergeben

Visual trap between engeren and ergeben

A purely visual mix-up. engeren ([ˈɛŋəʁən]) and ergeben ([ɛɐ̯ˈɡeːbn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15595, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

engeren is recorded at frequency rank #13,351, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈɛŋəʁən]. ergeben is at rank #2,244, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈɡeːbn̩].

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 15595, this pair ranks #1,942,626 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of engeren vs ergeben

Shared letters: egnr. Private to "engeren": -. Private to "ergeben": b.

"engeren" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "ergeben" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • engeren ← egneren · enegren · engeern · engerenn · engerne · engerren · enggeren · engreen
  • ergeben ← egreben · eregben · ergbeen · ergebben · ergebenn · ergebne · ergeebn · erggeben

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "engeren" for "ergeben" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈɛŋəʁən] versus [ɛɐ̯ˈɡeːbn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "engeren" vs "ergeben" - which ranks higher?
"ergeben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,244 in our German list, against #13,351 for "engeren". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "engeren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ergeben" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,942,626 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "engeren" and "ergeben" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ergeben vs erhebe". 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 #1,942,626 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