erntetevserstereWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: erntete is a verb, erstere is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“erntete” is a verb and “erstere” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,147
“erntete” frequency rank
#21,592
“erstere” frequency rank
62739
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature erntete erstere
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs ernten von zweien oder mehreren zuerst genannt

Where the eye mixes erntete and erstere

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

7 ch
erntete
7 ch
erstere

Visual trap between erntete and erstere

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: erntete is [ˈɛʁntətə] while erstere is [ˈeːɐ̯stəʁə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62739, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

erntete is recorded at frequency rank #41,147, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈɛʁntətə]. erstere is at rank #21,592, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈeːɐ̯stəʁə].

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 62739, this pair ranks #701,969 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of erntete vs erstere

Shared letters: ert. Private to "erntete": n. Private to "erstere": s.

"erntete" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV  ·  "erstere" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • erntete ← enrtete · ernette · ernntete · ernteet · erntette · ernttee · ernttete · errntete
  • erstere ← errstere · ersetre · ersstere · ersteer · ersterre · erstree · ersttere · ertsere

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "erntete" and "erstere" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "erntete" is a verb and "erstere" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "erntete" vs "erstere" - which ranks higher?
"erstere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,592 in our German list, against #41,147 for "erntete". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "erntete" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "erstere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #701,969 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "erntete" and "erstere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Entente vs erntete". 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 #701,969 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