bathvsbaueWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: bath is a noun, baue is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bath” is a noun and “baue” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,434
“bath” frequency rank
#12,670
“baue” frequency rank
45104
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bath baue
Definition Bad (Tätigkeit) 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs bauen

Where the eye mixes bath and baue

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

4 ch
bath
4 ch
baue

Visual trap between bath and baue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bath is [bɑːθ] while baue is [ˈbaʊ̯ə]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45104, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bath is recorded at frequency rank #32,434, classified as anoun, pronounced [bɑːθ]. baue is at rank #12,670, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈbaʊ̯ə].

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 45104, this pair ranks #1,364,350 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bath vs baue

Shared letters: ab. Private to "bath": ht. Private to "baue": eu.

"bath" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "baue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bathabth · baht · bathh · batth · bbath · btah
  • baueabue · baeu · bbaue · buae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bath" and "baue" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bath" is a noun and "baue" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "bath" vs "baue" - which ranks higher?
"baue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,670 in our German list, against #32,434 for "bath". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bath" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "baue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,364,350 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bath" and "baue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bath vs breath". 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 #1,364,350 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