mildervsmindernTell them apart

Quick tell: milder is a adjective, mindern is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“milder” is an adjective and “mindern” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,670
“milder” frequency rank
#22,829
“mindern” frequency rank
48499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature milder mindern
Definition Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs mild etwas kleiner, weniger machen; bewirken, dass etwas geringer wird

Where the eye mixes milder and mindern

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
milder
7 ch
mindern

Look-alike desk: milder vs mindern

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: milder is [ˈmɪldɐ] while mindern is [ˈmɪndɐn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

milder is recorded at frequency rank #25,670, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmɪldɐ]. mindern is at rank #22,829, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmɪndɐn].

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 48499, this pair ranks #1,246,354 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of milder vs mindern

Shared letters: deimr. Private to "milder": l. Private to "mindern": n.

"milder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mindern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • milderimlder · midler · mildder · milderr · mildre · miledr · millder · mlider
  • mindernimndern · midnern · minddern · mindenr · mindernn · minderrn · mindren · minedrn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "milder" and "mindern" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "milder" is an adjective and "mindern" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "milder" vs "mindern" - which ranks higher?
"mindern" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,829 in our German list, against #25,670 for "milder". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "milder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mindern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,246,354 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "milder" and "mindern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Milben vs milder". 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 #1,246,354 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