bleibvsbleuWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: bleib is a verb, bleu is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bleib” is a verb and “bleu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,333
“bleib” frequency rank
#47,273
“bleu” frequency rank
51606
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bleib bleu
Definition 2. Person Singular Präsens Imperativ Aktiv des Verbs bleiben eine blass- bis mittelblaue Farbe habend, die ins Grünliche oder Gräuliche geht

Where the eye mixes bleib and bleu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
bleib
4 ch
bleu

Look-alike desk: bleib vs bleu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bleib is [blaɪ̯p] while bleu is [bløː]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51606, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bleib is recorded at frequency rank #4,333, classified as averb, pronounced [blaɪ̯p]. bleu is at rank #47,273, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bløː].

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 51606, this pair ranks #1,129,052 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bleib vs bleu

Shared letters: bel. Private to "bleib": i. Private to "bleu": u.

"bleib" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "bleu" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bleibbbleib · belib · blebi · bleibb · blleib · lbeib
  • bleubbleu · belu · blleu · lbeu

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bleib" and "bleu" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bleib" is a verb and "bleu" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "bleib" or "bleu" show up more?
"bleib" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,333 in our German list, against #47,273 for "bleu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bleib" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bleu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,129,052 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bleib" and "bleu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bleu vs Böen". 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 #1,129,052 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