igevsihnConfusable pair

Quick tell: ige is a noun, ihn is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ige” is a noun and “ihn” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,298
“ige” frequency rank
#140
“ihn” frequency rank
21438
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ige ihn
Definition Verb Personalpronomen 3. Person Maskulinum Singular Akkusativ

Where the eye mixes ige and ihn

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
ige
3 ch
ihn

Why the eye confuses ige with ihn

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ige is [ˈiɡɛ] while ihn is [iːn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21438, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ige is recorded at frequency rank #21,298, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈiɡɛ]. ihn is at rank #140, tagged as apron, pronounced [iːn].

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 21438, this pair ranks #1,886,238 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ige vs ihn

Shared letters: i. Private to "ige": eg. Private to "ihn": hn.

"ige" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ihn" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ige" and "ihn" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ige" is a noun and "ihn" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ige" vs "ihn" - which ranks higher?
"ihn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #140 in our German list, against #21,298 for "ige". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ige" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ihn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,886,238 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ige" and "ihn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ige vs IMs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,886,238 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