merkwürdigervsmerkwürdigesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#30,683
“merkwürdiger” frequency rank
#27,413
“merkwürdiges” frequency rank
58096
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature merkwürdiger merkwürdiges
Definition Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs merkwürdig Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs merkwürdig

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set merkwürdiger and merkwürdiges apart are highlighted. They share 11 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

12 ch
merkwürdiger
12 ch
merkwürdiges

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. merkwürdiger ([ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡɐ]) 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 a single letter - r in “merkwürdiger” becomes s in “merkwürdiges”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58096, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

merkwürdiger is recorded at frequency rank #30,683, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡɐ]. 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 58096, this pair ranks #875,972 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of merkwürdiger vs merkwürdiges

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

"merkwürdiger" · 12 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVCVC  ·  "merkwürdiges" · 12 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "merkwürdiger" and "merkwürdiges" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡɐ] versus [ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "merkwürdiger" or "merkwürdiges"?
"merkwürdiges" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,413 in our German list, against #30,683 for "merkwürdiger". 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