untervsuntereWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#87
“unter” frequency rank
#5,659
“untere” frequency rank
5746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature unter untere
Definition an einem tieferen Ort als Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs unter-

Where the eye mixes unter and untere

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

5 ch
unter
6 ch
untere

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: unter is [ˈʊntɐ] while untere is [ˈʊntəʁə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “unter” sits inside “untere”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

unter is recorded at frequency rank #87, classified as aprep, pronounced [ˈʊntɐ]. 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 5746, this pair ranks #1,993,861 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of unter vs untere

Shared letters: enrtu. Private to "unter": -. Private to "untere": -.

"unter" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "untere" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • unternuter · unetr · unnter · unterr · untre · untter · utner
  • unterenutere · unetre · unntere · unteer · unterre · untree · unttere · utnere

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "unter" and "untere" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "unter" is a preposition and "untere" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "unter" or "untere"?
"unter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #87 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 "unter" and "untere". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "unter" 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 #1,993,861 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "unter" and "untere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "unter 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