BernvsbrunWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Bern is a name, brun is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Bern” is a name and “brun” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,359
“Bern” frequency rank
#48,026
“brun” frequency rank
51385
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Bern brun
Definition Stadt in der Schweiz; Bundesstadt der Schweiz braun

Letter map: Bern vs brun

Shared letters muted; letters that set Bern and brun apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Bern (CVCC) and brun (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
Bern
4 ch
brun

Role in the sentence - Bern and brun

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Bern is aname and brunanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51385, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bern is recorded at frequency rank #3,359, classified as aname, pronounced [bɛʁn]. brun is at rank #48,026, tagged as anadj, pronounced […].

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 51385, this pair ranks #1,137,528 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Bern vs brun

Shared letters: bnr. Private to "Bern": e. Private to "brun": u.

"Bern" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "brun" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Bern ← bbern · benr · bernn · berrn · bren · ebrn
  • brun ← bbrun · brnu · brrun · brunn · rbun

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Bern" for "brun" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Bern" is a name and "brun" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Bern" vs "brun" - which ranks higher?
"Bern" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,359 in our German list, against #48,026 for "brun". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "Bern" and "brun". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Bern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,137,528 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bern" and "brun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brun vs puzzles". 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 #1,137,528 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