brüllenvsBrüstenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: brüllen is a verb, Brüsten is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“brüllen” is a verb and “Brüsten” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,053
“brüllen” frequency rank
#19,172
“Brüsten” frequency rank
34225
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brüllen Brüsten
Definition mit lauter, (oft) unkontrollierter Stimme in tieferer Tonlage erregt äußern; meist aggressiv Dativ Plural des Substantivs Brust

Where the eye mixes brüllen and Brüsten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. brüllen and Brüsten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
brüllen
7 ch
Brüsten

Look-alike desk: brüllen vs Brüsten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: brüllen is [ˈbʁʏlən] while Brüsten is [ˈbʁʏstn̩]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34225, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brüllen is recorded at frequency rank #15,053, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈbʁʏlən]. Brüsten is at rank #19,172, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʁʏstn̩].

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 34225, this pair ranks #1,668,229 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of brüllen vs Brüsten

Shared letters: benrü. Private to "brüllen": l. Private to "Brüsten": st.

"brüllen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "Brüsten" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "brüllen" for "Brüsten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "brüllen" is a verb and "Brüsten" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "brüllen" or "Brüsten" show up more?
"brüllen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,053 in our German list, against #19,172 for "Brüsten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "brüllen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Brüsten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,668,229 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brüllen" and "Brüsten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Blusen vs Brüsten". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,668,229 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