merkwürdigvsmerkwürdigesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,088
“merkwürdig” frequency rank
#27,413
“merkwürdiges” frequency rank
33501
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature merkwürdig merkwürdiges
Definition durch Abweichung vom Üblichen auffallend; Staunen, Verwunderung oder aber leises Misstrauen bewirkend Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs merkwürdig

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set merkwürdig and merkwürdiges apart are highlighted. They share 10 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

10 ch
merkwürdig
12 ch
merkwürdiges

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. merkwürdig ([ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪç]) and merkwürdiges ([ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡəs]) 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 “merkwürdiges”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33501, 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]. merkwürdiges is at rank #27,413, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡəs].

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 33501, this pair ranks #1,684,615 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of merkwürdig vs merkwürdiges

Shared letters: degikmrwü. Private to "merkwürdig": -. Private to "merkwürdiges": s.

"merkwürdig" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVC  ·  "merkwürdiges" · 12 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "merkwürdig" and "merkwürdiges" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪç] versus [ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "merkwürdig" or "merkwürdiges"?
"merkwürdig" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,088 in our German list, against #27,413 for "merkwürdiges". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list