kritischervskritischesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#11,467
“kritischer” frequency rank
#24,806
“kritisches” frequency rank
36273
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kritischer kritisches
Definition Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs kritisch Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs kritisch

Where the eye mixes kritischer and kritisches

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

10 ch
kritischer
10 ch
kritisches

Visual trap between kritischer and kritisches

A purely visual mix-up. kritischer ([ˈkʁiːtɪʃɐ]) and kritisches ([ˈkʁiːtɪʃəs]) 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 - r in “kritischer” becomes s in “kritisches”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36273, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kritischer is recorded at frequency rank #11,467, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈkʁiːtɪʃɐ]. kritisches is at rank #24,806, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈkʁiːtɪʃəs].

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 36273, this pair ranks #1,619,724 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of kritischer vs kritisches

Shared letters: cehikrst. Private to "kritischer": -. Private to "kritisches": -.

"kritischer" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCCVC  ·  "kritisches" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kritischer ← kirtischer · kkritischer · kriitscher · kriticsher · kritisccher · kritiscehr · kritischerr · kritischher
  • kritisches ← kirtisches · kkritisches · kriitsches · kriticshes · kritiscches · kritiscehs · kritischess · kritischhes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kritischer" for "kritisches" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkʁiːtɪʃɐ] versus [ˈkʁiːtɪʃəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "kritischer" vs "kritisches" - which ranks higher?
"kritischer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,467 in our German list, against #24,806 for "kritisches". 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 "kritischer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kritisches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,619,724 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kritischer" and "kritisches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kritischem vs kritisches". 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 #1,619,724 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