breitervsBretternWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#6,519
“breiter” frequency rank
#27,653
“Brettern” frequency rank
34172
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes breiter and Brettern

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
breiter
8 ch
Brettern

Look-alike desk: breiter vs Brettern

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: breiter is [ˈbʁaɪ̯tɐ] while Brettern is [ˈbʁɛtɐn]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34172, 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]. Brettern is at rank #27,653, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʁɛtɐn].

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 34172, this pair ranks #1,669,487 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of breiter vs Brettern

Shared letters: bert. Private to "breiter": i. Private to "Brettern": n.

"breiter" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "Brettern" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • breiterbbreiter · beriter · breietr · breiterr · breitre · breitter · bretier · brieter
  • Bretternbbrettern · berttern · bretern · bretetrn · brettenr · bretternn · bretterrn · brettren

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "breiter" for "Brettern" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "breiter" is an adjective and "Brettern" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "breiter" or "Brettern" show up more?
"breiter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,519 in our German list, against #27,653 for "Brettern". 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 "breiter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Brettern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,669,487 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "breiter" and "Brettern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "breitere vs Brettern". 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 #1,669,487 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