Which to use
“er” is a pronoun and “Erz” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25
- “er” frequency rank
- #23,924
- “Erz” frequency rank
- 23949
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | er | Erz |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personalpronomen 3. Person Neutrum Singular, welches eine zuvor benutzte Nominalphrase im Maskulinum (Person, Tier, Sache oder Abstraktum) ersetzt oder bei fehlendem oder weit entferntem Bezugswort auf eine Person männlichen natürlichen Geschlechts verweist | natürlich vorkommende metallhaltige Mineralien und Mineraliengemische, aus denen durch Verhüttung Metalle gewonnen werden |
Where the eye mixes er and Erz
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: er vs Erz
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: er is [eːɐ̯] while Erz is [eːɐ̯t͡s]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “er” sits inside “Erz”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23949, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
er is recorded at frequency rank #25, classified as apron, pronounced [eːɐ̯]. Erz is at rank #23,924, tagged as anoun, pronounced [eːɐ̯t͡s].
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 23949, this pair ranks #1,854,377 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of er vs Erz
Shared letters: er. Private to "er": -. Private to "Erz": z.
"er" · 2 letters · shape VC · "Erz" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "er" and "Erz" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "er" or "Erz" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "er" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Erz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,854,377 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "er" and "Erz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Erz vs Esra". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #1,854,377 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.