BritenvsbrokenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#5,348
“Briten” frequency rank
#25,482
“broken” frequency rank
30830
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Briten broken
Definition Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Brite zerbrochen, kaputt, defekt, beschädigt

Where the eye mixes Briten and broken

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

6 ch
Briten
6 ch
broken

Visual trap between Briten and broken

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Briten is [ˈbʁɪtn̩] 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30830, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Briten is recorded at frequency rank #5,348, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʁɪtn̩]. 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 30830, this pair ranks #1,740,228 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Briten vs broken

Shared letters: benr. Private to "Briten": it. Private to "broken": ko.

"Briten" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "broken" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Britenbbriten · birten · brietn · britenn · britne · britten · brriten · brtien
  • brokenbbroken · brkoen · broekn · brokenn · brokken · brokne · brroken · rboken

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Briten" and "broken" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Briten" is a noun and "broken" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Briten" or "broken"?
"Briten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,348 in our German list, against #25,482 for "broken". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Briten" and "broken" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Briten" 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 #1,740,228 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Briten" 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 #1,740,228 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