BurgvsbushWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“Burg” and “bush” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,363
“Burg” frequency rank
#9,342
“bush” frequency rank
12705
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Burg bush
Definition mittelalterlicher, befestigter Wohn- und Verteidigungsbau der Busch, der Strauch, das Gebüsch

Where the eye mixes Burg and bush

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Burg and bush follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
Burg
4 ch
bush

Look-alike desk: Burg vs bush

A purely visual mix-up. Burg ([bʊʁk]) and bush ([bʊʃ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12705, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Burg is recorded at frequency rank #3,363, classified as anoun, pronounced [bʊʁk]. bush is at rank #9,342, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bʊʃ].

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 12705, this pair ranks #1,962,537 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Burg vs bush

Shared letters: bu. Private to "Burg": gr. Private to "bush": hs.

"Burg" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "bush" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Burg ← bburg · brug · bugr · burgg · burrg · ubrg
  • bush ← bbush · bsuh · buhs · bushh · bussh · ubsh

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Burg" and "bush" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([bʊʁk] versus [bʊʃ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Burg" or "bush"?
"Burg" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,363 in our German list, against #9,342 for "bush". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Burg" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bush" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,962,537 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Burg" and "bush" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bush vs Bussi". 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 #1,962,537 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