EreignissenvsEreignissesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,356
“Ereignissen” frequency rank
#30,031
“Ereignisses” frequency rank
38387
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ereignissen Ereignisses
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Ereignis Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Ereignis

Where the eye mixes Ereignissen and Ereignisses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. Ereignissen and Ereignisses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

11 ch
Ereignissen
11 ch
Ereignisses

Visual trap between Ereignissen and Ereignisses

A purely visual mix-up. Ereignissen ([ɛɐ̯ˈʔaɪ̯ɡnɪsn̩]) and Ereignisses ([ɛɐ̯ˈʔaɪ̯ɡnɪsəs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - n in “Ereignissen” becomes s in “Ereignisses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38387, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ereignissen is recorded at frequency rank #8,356, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈʔaɪ̯ɡnɪsn̩]. Ereignisses is at rank #30,031, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈʔaɪ̯ɡnɪsəs].

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 38387, this pair ranks #1,565,316 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Ereignissen vs Ereignisses

Shared letters: eginrs. Private to "Ereignissen": -. Private to "Ereignisses": -.

"Ereignissen" · 11 letters · shape VCVVCCVCCVC  ·  "Ereignisses" · 11 letters · shape VCVVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ereignissen ← eerignissen · ereginissen · ereiggnissen · ereiginssen · ereignisen · ereignisesn · ereignissenn · ereignissne
  • Ereignisses ← eerignisses · ereginisses · ereiggnisses · ereiginsses · ereignisess · ereignissess · ereignissse · ereignißes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Ereignissen" for "Ereignisses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɛɐ̯ˈʔaɪ̯ɡnɪsn̩] versus [ɛɐ̯ˈʔaɪ̯ɡnɪsəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Ereignissen" or "Ereignisses" show up more?
"Ereignissen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,356 in our German list, against #30,031 for "Ereignisses". 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 "Ereignissen" and "Ereignisses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ereignissen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ereignisses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,565,316 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ereignissen" and "Ereignisses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ereignissen vs Erzeugnissen". 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 #1,565,316 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