angehörenvsanhörenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“angehören” and “anhören” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,137
“angehören” frequency rank
#6,143
“anhören” frequency rank
15280
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature angehören anhören
Definition Teil einer Gruppe, eines Gremiums, einer Organisation, eines Gebiets oder Ähnlichem sein jemandem (aufmerksam) zuhören; jemandem (vor allem vor Gericht) Gehör schenken

Where the eye mixes angehören and anhören

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. angehören runs 9 letters (VCCVCVCVC) against anhören's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
angehören
7 ch
anhören

Look-alike desk: angehören vs anhören

A purely visual mix-up. angehören ([ˈanɡəˌhøːʁən]) and anhören ([ˈanˌhøːʁən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15280, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

angehören is recorded at frequency rank #9,137, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈanɡəˌhøːʁən]. anhören is at rank #6,143, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈanˌhøːʁən].

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 15280, this pair ranks #1,945,091 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of angehören vs anhören

Shared letters: aehnrö. Private to "angehören": g. Private to "anhören": -.

"angehören" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVC  ·  "anhören" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "angehören" for "anhören" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈanɡəˌhøːʁən] versus [ˈanˌhøːʁən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "angehören" vs "anhören" - which ranks higher?
"anhören" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,143 in our German list, against #9,137 for "angehören". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "angehören" and "anhören" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "angehören" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "anhören" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,945,091 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "angehören" and "anhören" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "angehören vs anzugehören". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,945,091 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list