hervorragendervshervorragendesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,451
“hervorragender” frequency rank
#29,171
“hervorragendes” frequency rank
45622
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hervorragender hervorragendes
Definition Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs hervorragend Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs hervorragend

Where the eye mixes hervorragender and hervorragendes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 13 letters in sequence. hervorragender and hervorragendes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

14 ch
hervorragender
14 ch
hervorragendes

Visual trap between hervorragender and hervorragendes

A purely visual mix-up. hervorragender ([hɛɐ̯ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʁaːɡn̩dɐ]) and hervorragendes ([hɛɐ̯ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʁaːɡn̩dəs]) 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 “hervorragender” becomes s in “hervorragendes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45622, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hervorragender is recorded at frequency rank #16,451, classified as anadj, pronounced [hɛɐ̯ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʁaːɡn̩dɐ]. hervorragendes is at rank #29,171, tagged as anadj, pronounced [hɛɐ̯ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʁaːɡn̩dəs].

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 45622, this pair ranks #1,346,764 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hervorragender vs hervorragendes

Shared letters: adeghnorv. Private to "hervorragender": -. Private to "hervorragendes": s.

"hervorragender" · 14 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCVCCVC  ·  "hervorragendes" · 14 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hervorragender ← ehrvorragender · herovrragender · herrvorragender · hervoragender · hervorargender · hervorraegnder · hervorragedner · hervorragendder
  • hervorragendes ← ehrvorragendes · herovrragendes · herrvorragendes · hervoragendes · hervorargendes · hervorraegndes · hervorragednes · hervorragenddes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hervorragender" and "hervorragendes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([hɛɐ̯ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʁaːɡn̩dɐ] versus [hɛɐ̯ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʁaːɡn̩dəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "hervorragender" or "hervorragendes" show up more?
"hervorragender" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,451 in our German list, against #29,171 for "hervorragendes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hervorragender" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hervorragendes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,346,764 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hervorragender" and "hervorragendes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hervorragenden vs hervorragendes". 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 #1,346,764 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