KleidervskleinesTell them apart

Quick tell: Kleider is a noun, kleines is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Kleider” is a noun and “kleines” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,970
“Kleider” frequency rank
#1,300
“kleines” frequency rank
7270
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kleider kleines
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Kleid Nominativ Singular Neutrum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs klein

Where the eye mixes Kleider and kleines

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Kleider and kleines follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
Kleider
7 ch
kleines

Look-alike desk: Kleider vs kleines

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Kleider is [ˈklaɪ̯dɐ] while kleines is [ˈklaɪ̯nəs]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7270, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kleider is recorded at frequency rank #5,970, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈklaɪ̯dɐ]. kleines is at rank #1,300, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈklaɪ̯nəs].

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 7270, this pair ranks #1,988,793 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Kleider vs kleines

Shared letters: eikl. Private to "Kleider": dr. Private to "kleines": ns.

"Kleider" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "kleines" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Kleider ← kelider · kkleider · kledier · kleidder · kleiderr · kleidre · kleiedr · klieder
  • kleines ← kelines · kkleines · kleiens · kleiness · kleinnes · kleinse · klenies · klienes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Kleider" for "kleines" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Kleider" is a noun and "kleines" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Kleider" vs "kleines" - which ranks higher?
"kleines" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,300 in our German list, against #5,970 for "Kleider". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kleider" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kleines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,988,793 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kleider" and "kleines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kleinbus vs kleines". 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 #1,988,793 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