Which to use
“passen” is a verb and “passende” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,932
- “passen” frequency rank
- #5,519
- “passende” frequency rank
- 7451
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passen | passende |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | angemessen sein, sich eignen, harmonieren; gute Passform haben | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs passend |
Where the eye mixes passen and passende
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: passen vs passende
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: passen is [ˈpasn̩] while passende is [ˈpasn̩də]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “passen” sits inside “passende”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7451, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passen is recorded at frequency rank #1,932, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpasn̩]. passende is at rank #5,519, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈpasn̩də].
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 7451, this pair ranks #1,988,107 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passen vs passende
Shared letters: aenps. Private to "passen": -. Private to "passende": d.
"passen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "passende" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "passen" and "passende" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "passen" or "passende" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "passen" and "passende" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "passen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "passende" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,988,107 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passen" and "passende" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "packende vs passende". 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 #1,988,107 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.