kritischenvskritischerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,731
“kritischen” frequency rank
#11,467
“kritischer” frequency rank
17198
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kritischen kritischer
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs kritisch Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs kritisch

Where the eye mixes kritischen and kritischer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. kritischen and kritischer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
kritischen
10 ch
kritischer

Look-alike desk: kritischen vs kritischer

A purely visual mix-up. kritischen ([ˈkʁiːtɪʃn̩]) and kritischer ([ˈkʁiːtɪʃɐ]) 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 a single letter - n in “kritischen” becomes r in “kritischer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17198, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kritischen is recorded at frequency rank #5,731, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈkʁiːtɪʃn̩]. kritischer is at rank #11,467, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈkʁiːtɪʃɐ].

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 17198, this pair ranks #1,929,510 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of kritischen vs kritischer

Shared letters: cehikrst. Private to "kritischen": n. Private to "kritischer": -.

"kritischen" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCCVC  ·  "kritischer" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kritischen ← kirtischen · kkritischen · kriitschen · kriticshen · kritiscchen · kritiscehn · kritischenn · kritischhen
  • kritischer ← kirtischer · kkritischer · kriitscher · kriticsher · kritisccher · kritiscehr · kritischerr · kritischher

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "kritischen" and "kritischer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkʁiːtɪʃn̩] versus [ˈkʁiːtɪʃɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "kritischen" vs "kritischer" - which ranks higher?
"kritischen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,731 in our German list, against #11,467 for "kritischer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "kritischen" and "kritischer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kritischen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kritischer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,929,510 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kritischen" and "kritischer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kritischem vs kritischer". 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 #1,929,510 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