blauvsblauemWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,871
“blau” frequency rank
#21,912
“blauem” frequency rank
23783
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blau blauem
Definition eine bunte Farbe, im Spektrum eine relativ kurzwellige Farbe zwischen grün und violett; Grundfarbe vieler Farbmodelle, insbesondere eine der drei Grundfarben des digitalen RGB-Farbraums Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs blau

Where the eye mixes blau and blauem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
blau
6 ch
blauem

Why the eye confuses blau with blauem

A purely visual mix-up. blau ([blaʊ̯]) and blauem ([ˈblaʊ̯əm]) 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 extra letter(s) - “blau” sits inside “blauem”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23783, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blau is recorded at frequency rank #1,871, classified as anadj, pronounced [blaʊ̯]. blauem is at rank #21,912, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈblaʊ̯əm].

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 23783, this pair ranks #1,856,651 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of blau vs blauem

Shared letters: ablu. Private to "blau": -. Private to "blauem": em.

"blau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "blauem" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blaubalu · bblau · bllau · blua · lbau
  • blauembaluem · bblauem · blaeum · blauemm · blaume · bllauem · bluaem · lbauem

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "blau" and "blauem" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([blaʊ̯] versus [ˈblaʊ̯əm]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "blau" vs "blauem" - which ranks higher?
"blau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,871 in our German list, against #21,912 for "blauem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "blau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blauem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,856,651 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blau" and "blauem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blauem vs braunem". 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 #1,856,651 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