gewisservsgewissesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,055
“gewisser” frequency rank
#11,660
“gewisses” frequency rank
18715
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gewisser gewisses
Definition Nominativ Singular Maskulinum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs gewiss Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gewiss

Where the eye mixes gewisser and gewisses

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

8 ch
gewisser
8 ch
gewisses

Visual trap between gewisser and gewisses

A purely visual mix-up. gewisser ([ɡəˈvɪsɐ]) and gewisses ([ɡəˈvɪsəs]) 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 - r in “gewisser” becomes s in “gewisses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18715, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gewisser is recorded at frequency rank #7,055, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈvɪsɐ]. gewisses is at rank #11,660, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈvɪsəs].

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 18715, this pair ranks #1,915,600 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gewisser vs gewisses

Shared letters: egisw. Private to "gewisser": r. Private to "gewisses": -.

"gewisser" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "gewisses" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gewisser ← egwisser · geiwsser · gewiser · gewisesr · gewisserr · gewissre · gewißer · gewsiser
  • gewisses ← egwisses · geiwsses · gewisess · gewissess · gewissse · gewißes · gewsises · gewwisses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gewisser" for "gewisses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɡəˈvɪsɐ] versus [ɡəˈvɪsəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "gewisser" or "gewisses" show up more?
"gewisser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,055 in our German list, against #11,660 for "gewisses". 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 "gewisser" and "gewisses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gewisser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gewisses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,915,600 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gewisser" and "gewisses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gewiesen vs gewisses". 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 #1,915,600 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