je

Name: je, German Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

[jeː]

/[jeː]/ adv

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“je” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #352) as an adverb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#352
frequency rank, German: 699
“J” headwords: 20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - zu irgendeiner Zeit, jemals

Corpus desk

Index DE-je · je · German

je · rank #352 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

FREQ-CORE #352
LEN-SHORT 2 letters
VOW-1 1 vowel
CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
VAR-0 0 variants
BOOK-MID 699
PHOTO-FINISH eigenen

Nearest frequency peer: eigenen (-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.

Bild

99,652
bleibt

99,651
eigenen

99,650
je

99,649
möglich

99,648
weit

99,646

What this shows Balken platzieren „je“ gegen die nächsten gerankten deutschen Lemmata, kein Reprint der Verwechslungsdesk.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

je vs jo

50% similar

je vs Jg

0% similar

je vs JS

0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for je
Property	Value
Headword	je
Language	German
Part of speech	Adverb
IPA	[jeː]
Letters	2
Frequency rank	#352
Misspellings tracked	0
Confusable pairs	20
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „je“

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).jeliegt auf dieser Marke:

#352

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „eigenen“ (#351), „möglich“ (#353), „bleibt“ (#350). Unter 699 „J“-Lemmata liegt „je“ bei #352. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for je is neighbouring look-alikes ("jo", "Jg", …), not just typos; it is anadverb pronounced [jeː]. Frequency #352 among 699 “J” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for je, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "jo", "Jg", "JS", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is je, spelled J-E.

Definition

1
zu irgendeiner Zeit, jemals
2
jeweils
3
je… [desto]…, je… [umso]…, oder je…, je… (zeigt mit zwei Komparativen das gleichgerichtete Wachstum des zweiten Komparativ zum ersten an)

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how je appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

Hast Du das je gesehen?
Wird das je geschehen?

Synonyms

jemals überhaupt jeweils pro

This word in other languages

ever(English)cada(Español)jamais(Français)

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "je"?

"je" is spelled J-E. The IPA pronunciation is [jeː].

What does "je" mean?

As an adverb, "je" means: zu irgendeiner Zeit, jemals

What words are commonly confused with "je"?

"je" is commonly confused with "jo", "Jg", "JS". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "je"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "je" is [jeː]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What language does "je" come from?

"je" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.

Is PlainSpell free to use?

Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.