blödevsBürdeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: blöde is a adjective, Bürde is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“blöde” is an adjective and “Bürde” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,919
“blöde” frequency rank
#33,507
“Bürde” frequency rank
39426
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blöde Bürde
Definition auf sehr niedrigem geistigen Niveau Last mit hohem Gewicht

Where the eye mixes blöde and Bürde

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

5 ch
blöde
5 ch
Bürde

Visual trap between blöde and Bürde

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: blöde is [ˈbløːdə] while Bürde is [ˈbʏʁdə]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39426, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blöde is recorded at frequency rank #5,919, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈbløːdə]. Bürde is at rank #33,507, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʏʁdə].

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 39426, this pair ranks #1,537,149 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of blöde vs Bürde

Shared letters: bde. Private to "blöde": . Private to "Bürde": .

"blöde" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "Bürde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blöde" for "Bürde" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "blöde" is an adjective and "Bürde" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "blöde" or "Bürde" show up more?
"blöde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,919 in our German list, against #33,507 for "Bürde". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "blöde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Bürde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,537,149 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blöde" and "Bürde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bube vs Bürde". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,537,149 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