permanentvspermanentenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,219
“permanent” frequency rank
#19,667
“permanenten” frequency rank
26886
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature permanent permanenten
Definition bleibend, immer während, ständig, ununterbrochen Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs permanent

Where the eye mixes permanent and permanenten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. permanent runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCC) against permanenten's 11 (CVCCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
permanent
11 ch
permanenten

Look-alike desk: permanent vs permanenten

A purely visual mix-up. permanent ([pɛʁmaˈnɛnt]) and permanenten ([pɛʁmaˈnɛntn̩]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “permanent” sits inside “permanenten”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26886, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

permanent is recorded at frequency rank #7,219, classified as anadj, pronounced [pɛʁmaˈnɛnt]. permanenten is at rank #19,667, tagged as anadj, pronounced [pɛʁmaˈnɛntn̩].

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 26886, this pair ranks #1,810,789 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of permanent vs permanenten

Shared letters: aemnprt. Private to "permanent": -. Private to "permanenten": -.

"permanent" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC  ·  "permanenten" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permanent ← eprmanent · pemranent · peramnent · permaennt · permanennt · permanentt · permanetn · permannent
  • permanenten ← eprmanenten · pemranenten · peramnenten · permaennten · permanenetn · permanennten · permanentenn · permanentne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "permanent" and "permanenten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([pɛʁmaˈnɛnt] versus [pɛʁmaˈnɛntn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "permanent" or "permanenten"?
"permanent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,219 in our German list, against #19,667 for "permanenten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "permanent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permanenten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,810,789 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "permanent" and "permanenten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permanenten vs permanenter". 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 #1,810,789 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