primavsprimärWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,826
“prima” frequency rank
#6,338
“primär” frequency rank
11164
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prima primär
Definition erstklassig in erster Linie

Where the eye mixes prima and primär

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
prima
6 ch
primär

Look-alike desk: prima vs primär

A purely visual mix-up. prima ([ˈpʁiːma]) and primär ([pʁiˈmɛːɐ̯]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11164, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prima is recorded at frequency rank #4,826, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈpʁiːma]. primär is at rank #6,338, tagged as anadj, pronounced [pʁiˈmɛːɐ̯].

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 11164, this pair ranks #1,971,343 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of prima vs primär

Shared letters: impr. Private to "prima": a. Private to "primär": ä.

"prima" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "primär" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • primapirma · pprima · priam · primma · prmia · prrima · rpima

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "prima" and "primär" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpʁiːma] versus [pʁiˈmɛːɐ̯]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "prima" or "primär"?
"prima" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,826 in our German list, against #6,338 for "primär". 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 "prima" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "primär" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,971,343 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prima" and "primär" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "primär vs Primat". 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 #1,971,343 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