PaaresvsplanesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Paares is a noun, planes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Paares” is a noun and “planes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,119
“Paares” frequency rank
#45,514
“planes” frequency rank
71633
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Paares planes
Definition Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Paar Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs plan

Where the eye mixes Paares and planes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Paares (CVVCVC) and planes (CCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
Paares
6 ch
planes

Why the eye confuses Paares with planes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Paares is [ˈpaːʁəs] while planes is [ˈplaːnəs]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71633, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Paares is recorded at frequency rank #26,119, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaːʁəs]. planes is at rank #45,514, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈplaːnəs].

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 71633, this pair ranks #411,245 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Paares vs planes

Shared letters: aeps. Private to "Paares": r. Private to "planes": ln.

"Paares" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "planes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Paares ← apares · paaers · paaress · paarres · paarse · paraes · pares · ppaares
  • planes ← lpanes · palnes · plaens · planess · plannes · planse · pllanes · plnaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Paares" for "planes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Paares" is a noun and "planes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Paares" vs "planes" - which ranks higher?
"Paares" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,119 in our German list, against #45,514 for "planes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Paares" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "planes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #411,245 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Paares" and "planes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "planes vs plants". 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 #411,245 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