brunvsbrütenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#48,026
“brun” frequency rank
#32,973
“brüten” frequency rank
80999
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brun brüten
Definition braun Eiern Wärme zuführen, um die Entwicklung des Nachwuchses zu gewährleisten

Letter map: brun vs brüten

Shared letters muted; letters that set brun and brüten apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. brun runs 4 letters (CCVC) against brüten's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
brun
6 ch
brüten

Grammar separator: brun vs brüten

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: brun is anadjective and brütenaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80999, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brun is recorded at frequency rank #48,026, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. brüten is at rank #32,973, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈbʁyːtn̩].

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 80999, this pair ranks #184,341 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of brun vs brüten

Shared letters: bnr. Private to "brun": u. Private to "brüten": etü.

"brun" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "brüten" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brun ← bbrun · brnu · brrun · brunn · rbun

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "brun" for "brüten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "brun" is an adjective and "brüten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "brun" or "brüten" show up more?
"brüten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,973 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.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "brun" and "brüten".

  • Full dictionary entry for "brun" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brüten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,341 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brun" and "brüten" 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 #184,341 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