blauvsblauesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,871
“blau” frequency rank
#15,582
“blaues” frequency rank
17453
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blau blaues
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 Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs blau

Where the eye mixes blau and blaues

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

4 ch
blau
6 ch
blaues

Visual trap between blau and blaues

A purely visual mix-up. blau ([blaʊ̯]) and blaues ([ˈblaʊ̯əs]) 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 “blaues”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17453, 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]. blaues is at rank #15,582, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈblaʊ̯əs].

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 17453, this pair ranks #1,927,266 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of blau vs blaues

Shared letters: ablu. Private to "blau": -. Private to "blaues": es.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blaubalu · bblau · bllau · blua · lbau
  • blauesbalues · bblaues · blaeus · blauess · blause · bllaues · bluaes · lbaues

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "blau" and "blaues" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([blaʊ̯] versus [ˈblaʊ̯əs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "blau" or "blaues" show up more?
"blau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,871 in our German list, against #15,582 for "blaues". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blaues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,927,266 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blau" and "blaues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blaues vs Brauns". 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 #1,927,266 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