etlichenvsetlicherWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#13,139
“etlichen” frequency rank
#43,158
“etlicher” frequency rank
56297
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature etlichen etlicher
Definition Akkusativ Singular Maskulinum des Indefinitpronomens etlich Nominativ Singular Maskulinum des Indefinitpronomens etlich

Where the eye mixes etlichen and etlicher

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. etlichen and etlicher follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
etlichen
8 ch
etlicher

Why the eye confuses etlichen with etlicher

A purely visual mix-up. etlichen ([ˈɛtlɪçn̩]) and etlicher ([ˈɛtlɪçɐ]) 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 “etlichen” becomes r in “etlicher”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56297, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

etlichen is recorded at frequency rank #13,139, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈɛtlɪçn̩]. etlicher is at rank #43,158, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈɛtlɪçɐ].

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 56297, this pair ranks #945,742 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of etlichen vs etlicher

Shared letters: cehilt. Private to "etlichen": n. Private to "etlicher": r.

"etlichen" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC  ·  "etlicher" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • etlichen ← eltichen · etilchen · etlcihen · etlicchen · etlicehn · etlichenn · etlichhen · etlichne
  • etlicher ← elticher · etilcher · etlciher · etliccher · etlicehr · etlicherr · etlichher · etlichre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "etlichen" and "etlicher" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈɛtlɪçn̩] versus [ˈɛtlɪçɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "etlichen" vs "etlicher" - which ranks higher?
"etlichen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,139 in our German list, against #43,158 for "etlicher". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "etlichen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "etlicher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #945,742 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "etlichen" and "etlicher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ethischer vs etlicher". 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 #945,742 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