Which to use
“merkwürdig” and “merkwürdige” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,088
- “merkwürdig” frequency rank
- #12,538
- “merkwürdige” frequency rank
- 18626
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | merkwürdig | merkwürdige |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | durch Abweichung vom Üblichen auffallend; Staunen, Verwunderung oder aber leises Misstrauen bewirkend | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs merkwürdig |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set merkwürdig and merkwürdige apart are highlighted. They share 10 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. merkwürdig ([ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪç]) and merkwürdige ([ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡə]) 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) - “merkwürdig” sits inside “merkwürdige”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18626, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
merkwürdig is recorded at frequency rank #6,088, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪç]. merkwürdige is at rank #12,538, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡə].
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 18626, this pair ranks #1,916,456 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of merkwürdig vs merkwürdige
Shared letters: degikmrwü. Private to "merkwürdig": -. Private to "merkwürdige": -.
"merkwürdig" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVC · "merkwürdige" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVCV