ihremvsirrenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#273
“ihrem” frequency rank
#7,629
“irren” frequency rank
7902
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ihrem irren
Definition Dativ Singular Maskulinum des femininen Possessivpronomens ihr falsch liegen, einem Fehler aufsitzen, einen Irrtum begehen

Where the eye mixes ihrem and irren

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ihrem
5 ch
irren

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ihrem is [ˈiːʁəm] while irren is [ˈɪʁən]. 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 (unknown vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7902, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ihrem is recorded at frequency rank #273, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈiːʁəm]. irren is at rank #7,629, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈɪʁən].

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 7902, this pair ranks #1,986,411 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ihrem vs irren

Shared letters: eir. Private to "ihrem": hm. Private to "irren": n.

"ihrem" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "irren" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ihremhirem · iherm · ihhrem · ihremm · ihrme · ihrrem · irhem
  • irrenirern · irrenn · irrne · riren

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ihrem" and "irren" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ihrem" is an unknown and "irren" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ihrem" or "irren"?
"ihrem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #273 in our German list, against #7,629 for "irren". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ihrem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "irren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,986,411 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ihrem" and "irren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "irren vs irrte". 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