fragmentvsimpossibleTell them apart

Quick tell: fragment is a noun, impossible is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fragment” is a noun and “impossible” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,134
“fragment” frequency rank
#33,653
“impossible” frequency rank
56787
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fragment impossible
Definition Splitter, Bruchstück, Fragment, Scherbe unmöglich

Letter map: fragment vs impossible

Shared letters muted; letters that set fragment and impossible apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. fragment runs 8 letters (CCVCCVCC) against impossible's 10 (VCCVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
fragment
10 ch
impossible

Grammar separator: fragment vs impossible

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fragment is anoun and impossibleanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56787, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fragment is recorded at frequency rank #23,134, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. impossible is at rank #33,653, tagged as anadj, 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 56787, this pair ranks #926,610 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fragment vs impossible

Shared letters: em. Private to "fragment": afgnrt. Private to "impossible": bilops.

"fragment" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "impossible" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fragment ← fargment · ffragment · fragemnt · fraggment · fragmennt · fragmentt · fragmetn · fragmment
  • impossible ← immpossible · imopssible · imposible · imposisble · impossbile · impossibble · impossibel · impossiblle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fragment" for "impossible" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fragment" is a noun and "impossible" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "fragment" or "impossible" show up more?
"fragment" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,134 in our German list, against #33,653 for "impossible". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "fragment" and "impossible".

  • Full dictionary entry for "fragment" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "impossible" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #926,610 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fragment" and "impossible" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impossible 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 #926,610 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