Which to use
“er” is a pronoun and “ESA” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25
- “er” frequency rank
- #21,241
- “ESA” frequency rank
- 21266
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | er | ESA |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | European Space Agency, Europäische Weltraumorganisation |
Where the eye mixes er and ESA
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses er with ESA
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: er is [eːɐ̯] while ESA is [ˈeːza]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21266, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
er is recorded at frequency rank #25, classified as apron, pronounced [eːɐ̯]. ESA is at rank #21,241, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈeːza].
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 21266, this pair ranks #1,888,319 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of er vs ESA
Shared letters: e. Private to "er": r. Private to "ESA": as.
"er" · 2 letters · shape VC · "ESA" · 3 letters · shape VCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "er" for "ESA" ever safe?
Frequency check: "er" vs "ESA" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "er" and "ESA" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "er" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ESA" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,888,319 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "er" and "ESA" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ESA vs Esra". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #1,888,319 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.