ironischevsironischenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“ironische” and “ironischen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#28,719
“ironische” frequency rank
#35,256
“ironischen” frequency rank
63975
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ironische ironischen
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs ironisch Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs ironisch

Where the eye mixes ironische and ironischen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. ironische runs 9 letters (VCVCVCCCV) against ironischen's 10 (VCVCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
ironische
10 ch
ironischen

Look-alike desk: ironische vs ironischen

A purely visual mix-up. ironische ([iˈʁoːnɪʃə]) and ironischen ([iˈʁoːnɪʃn̩]) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “ironische” sits inside “ironischen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63975, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ironische is recorded at frequency rank #28,719, classified as anadj, pronounced [iˈʁoːnɪʃə]. ironischen is at rank #35,256, tagged as anadj, pronounced [iˈʁoːnɪʃn̩].

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 63975, this pair ranks #657,745 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ironische vs ironischen

Shared letters: cehinors. Private to "ironische": -. Private to "ironischen": -.

"ironische" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCCCV  ·  "ironischen" · 10 letters · shape VCVCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ironische ← iornische · irnoische · iroinsche · ironicshe · ironiscche · ironisceh · ironischhe · ironishce
  • ironischen ← iornischen · irnoischen · iroinschen · ironicshen · ironiscchen · ironiscehn · ironischenn · ironischhen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ironische" for "ironischen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([iˈʁoːnɪʃə] versus [iˈʁoːnɪʃn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "ironische" or "ironischen" show up more?
"ironische" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,719 in our German list, against #35,256 for "ironischen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "ironische" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ironischen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #657,745 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ironische" and "ironischen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "iranischer vs ironischen". 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 #657,745 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