bravvsbravenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,775
“brav” frequency rank
#35,676
“braven” frequency rank
42451
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brav braven
Definition Gehorsam zeigend Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs brav

Where the eye mixes brav and braven

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

4 ch
brav
6 ch
braven

Look-alike desk: brav vs braven

A purely visual mix-up. brav ([bʁaːf]) and braven ([ˈbʁaːvn̩]) 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) - “brav” sits inside “braven”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42451, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brav is recorded at frequency rank #6,775, classified as anadj, pronounced [bʁaːf]. braven is at rank #35,676, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbʁaːvn̩].

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 42451, this pair ranks #1,448,882 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of brav vs braven

Shared letters: abrv. Private to "brav": -. Private to "braven": en.

"brav" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "braven" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bravbarv · bbrav · bravv · brrav · brva · rbav
  • bravenbarven · bbraven · braevn · bravenn · bravne · bravven · brraven · brvaen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "brav" for "braven" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([bʁaːf] versus [ˈbʁaːvn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "brav" or "braven"?
"brav" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,775 in our German list, against #35,676 for "braven". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "brav" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "braven" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,448,882 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brav" and "braven" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "braven vs braves". 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 #1,448,882 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