PersonalievsPersonalienConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#45,505
“Personalie” frequency rank
#22,847
“Personalien” frequency rank
68352
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Personalie Personalien
Definition amtliche Angaben zu spezifischen Eigenschaften einer Person Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Personalie

Where the eye mixes Personalie and Personalien

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. Personalie runs 10 letters (CVCCVCVCVV) against Personalien's 11 (CVCCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
Personalie
11 ch
Personalien

Look-alike desk: Personalie vs Personalien

A purely visual mix-up. Personalie ([pɛʁzoˈnaːli̯ə]) and Personalien ([pɛʁzoˈnaːli̯ən]) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “Personalie” sits inside “Personalien”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Personalie is recorded at frequency rank #45,505, classified as anoun, pronounced [pɛʁzoˈnaːli̯ə]. Personalien is at rank #22,847, tagged as anoun, pronounced [pɛʁzoˈnaːli̯ən].

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 68352, this pair ranks #510,495 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Personalie vs Personalien

Shared letters: aeilnoprs. Private to "Personalie": -. Private to "Personalien": -.

"Personalie" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVV  ·  "Personalien" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Personalie ← eprsonalie · perosnalie · perrsonalie · persnoalie · persoanlie · personaile · personalei · personallie
  • Personalien ← eprsonalien · perosnalien · perrsonalien · persnoalien · persoanlien · personailen · personalein · personalienn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Personalie" for "Personalien" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([pɛʁzoˈnaːli̯ə] versus [pɛʁzoˈnaːli̯ən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Personalie" or "Personalien" show up more?
"Personalien" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,847 in our German list, against #45,505 for "Personalie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Personalie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Personalien" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #510,495 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Personalie" and "Personalien" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Personaler vs Personalie". 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 #510,495 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