brennendvsbrennenderTell them apart

Which to use

“brennend” and “brennender” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,490
“brennend” frequency rank
#39,258
“brennender” frequency rank
69748
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brennend brennender
Definition mit Feuer in Kontakt sein, in Flammen stehend Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs brennend

Where the eye mixes brennend and brennender

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. brennend runs 8 letters (CCVCCVCC) against brennender's 10 (CCVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
brennend
10 ch
brennender

Look-alike desk: brennend vs brennender

A purely visual mix-up. brennend ([ˈbʁɛnənt]) and brennender ([ˈbʁɛnəndɐ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “brennend” sits inside “brennender”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brennend is recorded at frequency rank #30,490, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈbʁɛnənt]. brennender is at rank #39,258, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbʁɛnəndɐ].

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 69748, this pair ranks #467,124 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of brennend vs brennender

Shared letters: bdenr. Private to "brennend": -. Private to "brennender": -.

"brennend" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "brennender" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brennendbbrennend · bernnend · brenend · brenennd · brennedn · brennendd · brennennd · brennned
  • brennenderbbrennender · bernnender · brenender · brenennder · brennedner · brennendder · brennenderr · brennendre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "brennend" for "brennender" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈbʁɛnənt] versus [ˈbʁɛnəndɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "brennend" or "brennender"?
"brennend" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,490 in our German list, against #39,258 for "brennender". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "brennend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brennender" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #467,124 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brennend" and "brennender" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brennender vs brennendes". 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 #467,124 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