ihremvsihrerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ihrem is a unknown, ihrer is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ihrem” is an unknown and “ihrer” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#273
“ihrem” frequency rank
#161
“ihrer” frequency rank
434
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ihrem ihrer
Definition Dativ Singular Maskulinum des femininen Possessivpronomens ihr Personalpronomen 3. Person Femininum Singular Genitiv

Where the eye mixes ihrem and ihrer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ihrem
5 ch
ihrer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ihrem is [ˈiːʁəm] while ihrer is [ˈiːʁɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “ihrem” becomes r in “ihrer”, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 434, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ihrem is recorded at frequency rank #273, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈiːʁəm]. ihrer is at rank #161, tagged as apron, pronounced [ˈiːʁɐ].

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 434, this pair ranks #2,005,863 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ihrem vs ihrer

Shared letters: ehir. Private to "ihrem": m. Private to "ihrer": -.

"ihrem" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "ihrer" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ihremhirem · iherm · ihhrem · ihremm · ihrme · ihrrem · irhem
  • ihrerhirer · iherr · ihhrer · ihrerr · ihrrer · irher

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ihrem" and "ihrer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ihrem" is an unknown and "ihrer" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ihrem" or "ihrer"?
"ihrer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #161 in our German list, against #273 for "ihrem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "ihrem" and "ihrer". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ihrem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ihrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,005,863 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ihrem" and "ihrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ihrem vs Irrer". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list