innervsinnigWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: inner is a preposition, innig is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“inner” is a preposition and “innig” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,331
“inner” frequency rank
#37,588
“innig” frequency rank
54919
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inner innig
Definition in der Leidenschaft besitzend, im Sinne von

Where the eye mixes inner and innig

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

5 ch
inner
5 ch
innig

Look-alike desk: inner vs innig

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: inner is [ˈɪnɐ] while innig is [ˈɪnɪç]. 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 (preposition vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54919, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inner is recorded at frequency rank #17,331, classified as aprep, pronounced [ˈɪnɐ]. innig is at rank #37,588, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɪnɪç].

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 54919, this pair ranks #999,845 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of inner vs innig

Shared letters: in. Private to "inner": er. Private to "innig": g.

"inner" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "innig" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • innerinenr · iner · innerr · innre · niner
  • inniginig · ining · inngi · innigg · ninig

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "inner" and "innig" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "inner" is a preposition and "innig" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "inner" or "innig"?
"inner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,331 in our German list, against #37,588 for "innig". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "inner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "innig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #999,845 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "inner" and "innig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "innig vs innige". 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 #999,845 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