üblevsulliConfusable pair

Quick tell: üble is a adjective, ulli is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“üble” is an adjective and “ulli” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,070
“üble” frequency rank
#32,322
“ulli” frequency rank
48392
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature üble ulli
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs übel Dativ Singular des Indefinitpronomens ullus

Letter map: üble vs ulli

Shared letters muted; letters that set üble and ulli apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. üble and ulli follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
üble
4 ch
ulli

Grammar separator: üble vs ulli

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: üble is anadjective and ullianunknown. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48392, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

üble is recorded at frequency rank #16,070, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈyːblə]. ulli is at rank #32,322, tagged as anunknown, pronounced […].

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 48392, this pair ranks #1,250,213 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of üble vs ulli

Shared letters: l. Private to "üble": beü. Private to "ulli": iu.

"üble" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "ulli" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ulli ← luli · uli · ulil

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "üble" for "ulli" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "üble" is an adjective and "ulli" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "üble" vs "ulli" - which ranks higher?
"üble" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,070 in our German list, against #32,322 for "ulli". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "üble" and "ulli". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "üble" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ulli" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,250,213 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "üble" and "ulli" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs ulli". 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 #1,250,213 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