BremenvsbrokenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Bremen is a name, broken is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Bremen” is a name and “broken” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,410
“Bremen” frequency rank
#25,482
“broken” frequency rank
26892
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Bremen broken
Definition eine Stadt an der Weser in Deutschland zerbrochen, kaputt, defekt, beschädigt

Where the eye mixes Bremen and broken

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

6 ch
Bremen
6 ch
broken

Look-alike desk: Bremen vs broken

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Bremen is [ˈbʁeːmən] while broken is [ˈbrəʊkən]. 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 (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26892, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bremen is recorded at frequency rank #1,410, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈbʁeːmən]. broken is at rank #25,482, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbrəʊkən].

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 26892, this pair ranks #1,810,678 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Bremen vs broken

Shared letters: benr. Private to "Bremen": m. Private to "broken": ko.

"Bremen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "broken" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Bremenbbremen · bermen · breemn · bremenn · bremmen · bremne · brmeen · brremen
  • brokenbbroken · brkoen · broekn · brokenn · brokken · brokne · brroken · rboken

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Bremen" and "broken" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Bremen" is a name and "broken" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Bremen" or "broken" show up more?
"Bremen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,410 in our German list, against #25,482 for "broken". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Bremen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "broken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,810,678 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bremen" and "broken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Böen vs broken". 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 #1,810,678 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