EnglischevsenglischemWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Englische is a noun, englischem is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#3,309
“Englische” frequency rank
#45,895
“englischem” frequency rank
49204
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Englische englischem
Definition Nominativ Singular des Substantivs Englisch Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs englisch

Where the eye mixes Englische and englischem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. Englische runs 9 letters (VCCCVCCCV) against englischem's 10 (VCCCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
Englische
10 ch
englischem

Look-alike desk: Englische vs englischem

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Englische is [ˈɛŋlɪʃə] while englischem is [ˈɛŋlɪʃm̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Englische” sits inside “englischem”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49204, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Englische is recorded at frequency rank #3,309, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɛŋlɪʃə]. englischem is at rank #45,895, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɛŋlɪʃm̩].

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 49204, this pair ranks #1,220,206 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Englische vs englischem

Shared letters: ceghilns. Private to "Englische": -. Private to "englischem": m.

"Englische" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCCCV  ·  "englischem" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Englischeegnlische · engglische · engilsche · englicshe · engliscche · englisceh · englischhe · englishce
  • englischemegnlischem · engglischem · engilschem · englicshem · engliscchem · engliscehm · englischemm · englischhem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Englische" for "englischem" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Englische" is a noun and "englischem" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Englische" or "englischem" show up more?
"Englische" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,309 in our German list, against #45,895 for "englischem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Englische" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "englischem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,220,206 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Englische" and "englischem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "englischem vs englisches". 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 #1,220,206 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