Which to use
“brutal” and “brutalen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,022
- “brutal” frequency rank
- #17,836
- “brutalen” frequency rank
- 24858
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | brutal | brutalen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | dazu neigen, rücksichtslos, übermäßig, unangebracht und oft unbeherrscht gewalttätig, verletzend oder quälerisch zu sein, meist ohne Reue oder Skrupel. | Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs brutal |
Where the eye mixes brutal and brutalen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. brutal runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against brutalen's 8 (CCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between brutal and brutalen
A purely visual mix-up. brutal ([bʁuˈtaːl]) and brutalen ([bʁuˈtaːlən]) 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) - “brutal” sits inside “brutalen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24858, 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]. brutalen is at rank #17,836, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bʁuˈtaːlən].
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 24858, this pair ranks #1,841,629 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of brutal vs brutalen
Shared letters: ablrtu. Private to "brutal": -. Private to "brutalen": en.
"brutal" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "brutalen" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "brutal" for "brutalen" ever safe?
Which is more common, "brutal" or "brutalen"?
What to do next
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 "brutalen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,841,629 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "brutal" and "brutalen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brutalen 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 #1,841,629 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.