SchwächevsschwachemWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Schwäche is a noun, schwachem is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Schwäche” is a noun and “schwachem” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,003
“Schwäche” frequency rank
#44,903
“schwachem” frequency rank
50906
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Schwäche schwachem
Definition mangelnde körperliche oder geistige Kraft Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs schwach

Where the eye mixes Schwäche and schwachem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. Schwäche runs 8 letters (CCCCVCCV) against schwachem's 9 (CCCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
Schwäche
9 ch
schwachem

Visual trap between Schwäche and schwachem

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Schwäche is [ˈʃvɛçə] while schwachem is [ˈʃvaxm̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50906, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Schwäche is recorded at frequency rank #6,003, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃvɛçə]. schwachem is at rank #44,903, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʃvaxm̩].

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 50906, this pair ranks #1,155,834 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Schwäche vs schwachem

Shared letters: cehsw. Private to "Schwäche": ä. Private to "schwachem": am.

"Schwäche" · 8 letters · shape CCCCVCCV  ·  "schwachem" · 9 letters · shape CCCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • schwachemcshwachem · scchwachem · schawchem · schhwachem · schwacchem · schwacehm · schwachemm · schwachhem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Schwäche" for "schwachem" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Schwäche" is a noun and "schwachem" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Schwäche" vs "schwachem" - which ranks higher?
"Schwäche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,003 in our German list, against #44,903 for "schwachem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Schwäche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "schwachem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,155,834 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Schwäche" and "schwachem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "schwachem vs schwächt". 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 #1,155,834 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