personellevspersonellenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#20,364
“personelle” frequency rank
#24,458
“personellen” frequency rank
44822
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature personelle personellen
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs personell Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs personell

Where the eye mixes personelle and personellen

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

10 ch
personelle
11 ch
personellen

Visual trap between personelle and personellen

A purely visual mix-up. personelle ([pɛʁzoˈnɛlə]) and personellen ([pɛʁzoˈnɛlən]) 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) - “personelle” sits inside “personellen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44822, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

personelle is recorded at frequency rank #20,364, classified as anadj, pronounced [pɛʁzoˈnɛlə]. personellen is at rank #24,458, tagged as anadj, pronounced [pɛʁzoˈnɛlən].

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 44822, this pair ranks #1,373,624 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of personelle vs personellen

Shared letters: elnoprs. Private to "personelle": -. Private to "personellen": -.

"personelle" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCV  ·  "personellen" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • personelle ← eprsonelle · perosnelle · perrsonelle · persnoelle · persoenlle · personele · personelel · personlele
  • personellen ← eprsonellen · perosnellen · perrsonellen · persnoellen · persoenllen · personeleln · personelen · personellenn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "personelle" and "personellen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([pɛʁzoˈnɛlə] versus [pɛʁzoˈnɛlən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "personelle" or "personellen"?
"personelle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,364 in our German list, against #24,458 for "personellen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "personelle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "personellen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,373,624 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "personelle" and "personellen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Personalie vs personelle". 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 #1,373,624 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