brennvsbrunWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: brenn is a verb, brun is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“brenn” is a verb and “brun” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,778
“brenn” frequency rank
#48,026
“brun” frequency rank
91804
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brenn brun
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs brennen braun

Letter map: brenn vs brun

Shared letters muted; letters that set brenn and brun apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. brenn runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against brun's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
brenn
4 ch
brun

Role in the sentence - brenn and brun

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: brenn is averb and brunanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91804, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brenn is recorded at frequency rank #43,778, classified as averb, pronounced [bʁɛn]. brun is at rank #48,026, tagged as anadj, pronounced […].

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 91804, this pair ranks #34,870 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of brenn vs brun

Shared letters: bnr. Private to "brenn": e. Private to "brun": u.

"brenn" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "brun" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brenn ← bbrenn · brnen · brrenn · rbenn
  • brun ← bbrun · brnu · brrun · brunn · rbun

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "brenn" and "brun" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "brenn" is a verb and "brun" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "brenn" vs "brun" - which ranks higher?
"brenn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,778 in our German list, against #48,026 for "brun". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "brenn" vs "brun" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "brenn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,870 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brenn" and "brun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brun vs puzzles". 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 #34,870 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