Which to use
“merkwürdig” and “merkwürdiger” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,088
- “merkwürdig” frequency rank
- #30,683
- “merkwürdiger” frequency rank
- 36771
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | merkwürdig | merkwürdiger |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | durch Abweichung vom Üblichen auffallend; Staunen, Verwunderung oder aber leises Misstrauen bewirkend | Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs merkwürdig |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set merkwürdig and merkwürdiger 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 merkwürdiger ([ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡɐ]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “merkwürdig” sits inside “merkwürdiger”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36771, 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]. merkwürdiger is at rank #30,683, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡɐ].
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 36771, this pair ranks #1,607,101 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of merkwürdig vs merkwürdiger
Shared letters: degikmrwü. Private to "merkwürdig": -. Private to "merkwürdiger": -.
"merkwürdig" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVC · "merkwürdiger" · 12 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVCVC