laufendervslaufendesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#22,414
“laufender” frequency rank
#49,861
“laufendes” frequency rank
72275
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laufender laufendes
Definition Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs laufend Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs laufend

Where the eye mixes laufender and laufendes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. laufender and laufendes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
laufender
9 ch
laufendes

Look-alike desk: laufender vs laufendes

A purely visual mix-up. laufender ([ˈlaʊ̯fn̩dɐ]) and laufendes ([ˈlaʊ̯fn̩dəs]) 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 “laufender” becomes s in “laufendes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72275, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laufender is recorded at frequency rank #22,414, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯fn̩dɐ]. laufendes is at rank #49,861, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯fn̩dəs].

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 72275, this pair ranks #392,878 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laufender vs laufendes

Shared letters: adeflnu. Private to "laufender": r. Private to "laufendes": s.

"laufender" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCCVC  ·  "laufendes" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laufender ← alufender · lafuender · lauefnder · laufedner · laufendder · laufenderr · laufendre · laufenedr
  • laufendes ← alufendes · lafuendes · lauefndes · laufednes · laufenddes · laufendess · laufendse · laufeneds

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "laufender" and "laufendes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈlaʊ̯fn̩dɐ] versus [ˈlaʊ̯fn̩dəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "laufender" or "laufendes" show up more?
"laufender" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,414 in our German list, against #49,861 for "laufendes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "laufender" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "laufendes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #392,878 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laufender" and "laufendes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laufendem vs laufendes". 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 #392,878 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