ich
[ɪç]
The verdict
“ich” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #6) as a pronoun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #6
- frequency rank, German
- 1,488
- “I” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - bezeichnet die eigene Person; 1. Person Singular
Corpus desk
Index DE-ich · ich · German
ich · rank #6 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #6
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,488
- PHOTO-FINISH das
Nearest frequency peer: das (-1 rank slots)
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “ich”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- und
und
99,998 corpus weight
- das
das
99,996 corpus weight
- ich
ich
99,995 corpus weight
- ist
ist
99,994 corpus weight
- nicht
nicht
99,993 corpus weight
- zu
zu
99,992 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “ich” sits against the nearest ranked German headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ich |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Pronoun |
| IPA | [ɪç] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ich” sits in German frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for ich is neighbouring look-alikes ("im", "is", …), not just typos; it is apronoun pronounced [ɪç]. Frequency #6 among 1,488 “I” headwords. Gloss: "bezeichnet die eigene Person; 1. Person Singular".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for ich, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "im", "is", "ii", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is ich, spelled I-C-H.
Definition
- 1bezeichnet die eigene Person; 1. Person Singular
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ich appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ich lerne Deutsch.
Herr, erbarme dich meiner!
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar German words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ich", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.