politischenvspolitischesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#938
“politischen” frequency rank
#6,461
“politisches” frequency rank
7399
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature politischen politisches
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs politisch Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs politisch

Where the eye mixes politischen and politisches

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. politischen and politisches follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

11 ch
politischen
11 ch
politisches

Why the eye confuses politischen with politisches

A purely visual mix-up. politischen ([poˈliːtɪʃn̩]) and politisches ([poˈliːtɪʃəs]) 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 a single letter - n in “politischen” becomes s in “politisches”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

politischen is recorded at frequency rank #938, classified as anadj, pronounced [poˈliːtɪʃn̩]. politisches is at rank #6,461, tagged as anadj, pronounced [poˈliːtɪʃəs].

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 7399, this pair ranks #1,988,303 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of politischen vs politisches

Shared letters: cehilopst. Private to "politischen": n. Private to "politisches": -.

"politischen" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVCCCVC  ·  "politisches" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • politischenoplitischen · ploitischen · poiltischen · poliitschen · politicshen · politiscchen · politiscehn · politischenn
  • politischesoplitisches · ploitisches · poiltisches · poliitsches · politicshes · politiscches · politiscehs · politischess

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "politischen" for "politisches" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([poˈliːtɪʃn̩] versus [poˈliːtɪʃəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "politischen" or "politisches"?
"politischen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #938 in our German list, against #6,461 for "politisches". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "politischen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "politisches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,988,303 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "politischen" and "politisches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poetischen vs politischen". 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 #1,988,303 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