mittagsvsmittelsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mittags is a adverb, mittels is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mittags” is an adverb and “mittels” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,756
“mittags” frequency rank
#2,255
“mittels” frequency rank
11011
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mittags mittels
Definition am Mittag, um die Mittagszeit mit dem … [im Genitiv folgenden Gegenstand] als Mittel

Where the eye mixes mittags and mittels

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mittags and mittels follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
mittags
7 ch
mittels

Visual trap between mittags and mittels

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mittags is [ˈmɪtaːks] while mittels is [ˈmɪtl̩s]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11011, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mittags is recorded at frequency rank #8,756, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈmɪtaːks]. mittels is at rank #2,255, tagged as aprep, pronounced [ˈmɪtl̩s].

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 11011, this pair ranks #1,972,171 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mittags vs mittels

Shared letters: imst. Private to "mittags": ag. Private to "mittels": el.

"mittags" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "mittels" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mittags ← imttags · mitags · mitatgs · mittaggs · mittagss · mittasg · mittgas · mmittags
  • mittels ← imttels · mitels · mitetls · mittells · mittelss · mittesl · mittles · mmittels

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mittags" for "mittels" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mittags" is an adverb and "mittels" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "mittags" or "mittels" show up more?
"mittels" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,255 in our German list, against #8,756 for "mittags". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "mittags" and "mittels" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mittags" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mittels" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,972,171 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mittags" and "mittels" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mittellos vs mittels". 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 #1,972,171 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