Which to use
“brutal” and “brutale” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,022
- “brutal” frequency rank
- #15,323
- “brutale” frequency rank
- 22345
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | brutal | brutale |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | dazu neigen, rücksichtslos, übermäßig, unangebracht und oft unbeherrscht gewalttätig, verletzend oder quälerisch zu sein, meist ohne Reue oder Skrupel. | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs brutal |
Where the eye mixes brutal and brutale
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. brutal runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against brutale's 7 (CCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between brutal and brutale
A purely visual mix-up. brutal ([bʁuˈtaːl]) and brutale ([bʁuˈtaːlə]) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “brutal” sits inside “brutale”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22345, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
brutal is recorded at frequency rank #7,022, classified as anadj, pronounced [bʁuˈtaːl]. brutale is at rank #15,323, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bʁuˈtaːlə].
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 22345, this pair ranks #1,875,299 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of brutal vs brutale
Shared letters: ablrtu. Private to "brutal": -. Private to "brutale": e.
"brutal" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "brutale" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "brutal" and "brutale" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "brutal" or "brutale" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "brutal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brutale" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,875,299 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "brutal" and "brutale" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brutal vs brüten". 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 #1,875,299 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.