Which to use
“illegal” and “illegalen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,496
- “illegal” frequency rank
- #7,625
- “illegalen” frequency rank
- 13121
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | illegal | illegalen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | gegen ein Gesetz verstoßend, ohne behördliche Genehmigung, ungesetzlich, gesetzwidrig | Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs illegal |
Where the eye mixes illegal and illegalen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: illegal vs illegalen
A purely visual mix-up. illegal ([ˈɪleɡaːl]) and illegalen ([ˈɪleɡaːlən]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “illegal” sits inside “illegalen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13121, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
illegal is recorded at frequency rank #5,496, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈɪleɡaːl]. illegalen is at rank #7,625, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɪleɡaːlən].
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 13121, this pair ranks #1,959,984 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of illegal vs illegalen
Shared letters: aegil. Private to "illegal": -. Private to "illegalen": n.
"illegal" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC · "illegalen" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "illegal" and "illegalen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "illegal" or "illegalen" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "illegal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "illegalen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,959,984 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "illegal" and "illegalen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "illegalen vs illegales". 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 #1,959,984 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.