barevsBurgWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: bare is a adjective, Burg is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bare” is an adjective and “Burg” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,448
“bare” frequency rank
#3,363
“Burg” frequency rank
34811
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bare Burg
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs bar mittelalterlicher, befestigter Wohn- und Verteidigungsbau

Where the eye mixes bare and Burg

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
bare
4 ch
Burg

Look-alike desk: bare vs Burg

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bare is [ˈbaːʁə] while Burg is [bʊʁk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34811, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bare is recorded at frequency rank #31,448, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈbaːʁə]. Burg is at rank #3,363, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bʊʁk].

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 34811, this pair ranks #1,654,726 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bare vs Burg

Shared letters: br. Private to "bare": ae. Private to "Burg": gu.

"bare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Burg" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • barebarre · bbare · brae
  • Burgbburg · brug · bugr · burgg · burrg · ubrg

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bare" and "Burg" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bare" is an adjective and "Burg" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "bare" or "Burg" show up more?
"Burg" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,363 in our German list, against #31,448 for "bare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Burg" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,654,726 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bare" and "Burg" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bare vs Birk". 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

Confusion rank #1,654,726 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