unserevsuntereWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: unsere is a determiner, untere is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“unsere” is a determiner and “untere” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#218
“unsere” frequency rank
#5,659
“untere” frequency rank
5877
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature unsere untere
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum attributiv des Pronomens unser Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs unter-

Where the eye mixes unsere and untere

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
unsere
6 ch
untere

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: unsere is [ˈʊnzəʁə] while untere is [ˈʊntəʁə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “unsere” becomes t in “untere”, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5877, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

unsere is recorded at frequency rank #218, classified as adet, pronounced [ˈʊnzəʁə]. untere is at rank #5,659, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʊntəʁə].

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 5877, this pair ranks #1,993,425 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of unsere vs untere

Shared letters: enru. Private to "unsere": s. Private to "untere": t.

"unsere" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "untere" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • unserenusere · unesre · unnsere · unseer · unserre · unsree · unssere · usnere
  • unterenutere · unetre · unntere · unteer · unterre · untree · unttere · utnere

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "unsere" and "untere" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "unsere" is a determiner and "untere" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "unsere" or "untere"?
"unsere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #218 in our German list, against #5,659 for "untere". 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 "unsere" and "untere". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "unsere" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "untere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,993,425 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "unsere" and "untere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "untere vs unteres". 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