unevsunterWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: une is a unknown, unter is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“une” is an unknown and “unter” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,961
“une” frequency rank
#87
“unter” frequency rank
15048
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature une unter
Definition Singular Femininum des französischen unbestimmten Artikels un an einem tieferen Ort als

Where the eye mixes une and unter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
une
5 ch
unter

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: une is [yn] while unter is [ˈʊntɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15048, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

une is recorded at frequency rank #14,961, classified as anunknown, pronounced [yn]. unter is at rank #87, tagged as aprep, pronounced [ˈʊntɐ].

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 15048, this pair ranks #1,946,789 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of une vs unter

Shared letters: enu. Private to "une": -. Private to "unter": rt.

"une" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "unter" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • unternuter · unetr · unnter · unterr · untre · untter · utner

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "une" and "unter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "une" is an unknown and "unter" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "une" or "unter"?
"unter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #87 in our German list, against #14,961 for "une". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "une" and "unter". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "une" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "unter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,946,789 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "une" and "unter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "une vs Unzen". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list