evenvspatchesTell them apart

Quick tell: even is a adjective, patches is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#18,532
“even” frequency rank
#40,746
“patches” frequency rank
59278
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature even patches
Definition eben, ausgeglichen 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs patch

Letter map: even vs patches

Shared letters muted; letters that set even and patches apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. even runs 4 letters (VCVC) against patches's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
even
7 ch
patches

Role in the sentence - even and patches

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: even is anadjective and patchesaverb. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59278, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

even is recorded at frequency rank #18,532, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. patches is at rank #40,746, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 59278, this pair ranks #830,497 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of even vs patches

Shared letters: e. Private to "even": nv. Private to "patches": achpst.

"even" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "patches" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eveneevn · evenn · evne · evven · veen
  • patchesaptches · pacthes · patcches · patcehs · patchess · patchhes · patchse · pathces

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "even" and "patches" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "even" is an adjective and "patches" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "even" vs "patches" - which ranks higher?
"even" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,532 in our German list, against #40,746 for "patches". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "even" vs "patches" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "even" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "patches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #830,497 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "even" and "patches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "patches vs puzzles". 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 #830,497 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