breitervsBretterTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#6,519
“breiter” frequency rank
#20,199
“Bretter” frequency rank
26718
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature breiter Bretter
Definition Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs breit Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Brett

Where the eye mixes breiter and Bretter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. breiter (CCVVCVC) and Bretter (CCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
breiter
7 ch
Bretter

Look-alike desk: breiter vs Bretter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: breiter is [ˈbʁaɪ̯tɐ] while Bretter is [ˈbʁɛtɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “breiter” becomes t in “Bretter”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26718, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

breiter is recorded at frequency rank #6,519, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈbʁaɪ̯tɐ]. Bretter is at rank #20,199, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʁɛtɐ].

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 26718, this pair ranks #1,813,572 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of breiter vs Bretter

Shared letters: bert. Private to "breiter": i. Private to "Bretter": -.

"breiter" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "Bretter" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • breiter ← bbreiter · beriter · breietr · breiterr · breitre · breitter · bretier · brieter
  • Bretter ← bbretter · bertter · breter · bretetr · bretterr · brettre · brretter · brteter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "breiter" for "Bretter" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "breiter" is an adjective and "Bretter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "breiter" or "Bretter" show up more?
"breiter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,519 in our German list, against #20,199 for "Bretter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "breiter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Bretter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,813,572 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "breiter" and "Bretter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bettes vs Bretter". 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 #1,813,572 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