Which to use
“brennen” is a verb and “brennende” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,920
- “brennen” frequency rank
- #15,051
- “brennende” frequency rank
- 20971
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | brennen | brennende |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | in Flammen stehen, dem Feuer ausgesetzt sein | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs brennend |
Where the eye mixes brennen and brennende
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. brennen runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against brennende's 9 (CCVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between brennen and brennende
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: brennen is [ˈbʁɛnən] while brennende is [ˈbʁɛnəndə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “brennen” sits inside “brennende”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
brennen is recorded at frequency rank #5,920, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈbʁɛnən]. brennende is at rank #15,051, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbʁɛnəndə].
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 20971, this pair ranks #1,891,661 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of brennen vs brennende
Shared letters: benr. Private to "brennen": -. Private to "brennende": d.
"brennen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "brennende" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "brennen" and "brennende" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "brennen" or "brennende" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "brennen" and "brennende" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "brennen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brennende" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,891,661 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "brennen" and "brennende" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bekennende vs brennende". 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 #1,891,661 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.