BürgenvsBurgundWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Bürgen is a noun, Burgund is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Bürgen” is a noun and “Burgund” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,487
“Bürgen” frequency rank
#25,487
“Burgund” frequency rank
56974
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Bürgen Burgund
Definition Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Bürge Region im Zentrum Frankreichs

Where the eye mixes Bürgen and Burgund

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Bürgen runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against Burgund's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Bürgen
7 ch
Burgund

Look-alike desk: Bürgen vs Burgund

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Bürgen is [ˈbʏʁɡn̩] while Burgund is [bʊʁˈɡʊnt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56974, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bürgen is recorded at frequency rank #31,487, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʏʁɡn̩]. Burgund is at rank #25,487, tagged as aname, pronounced [bʊʁˈɡʊnt].

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 56974, this pair ranks #919,496 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Bürgen vs Burgund

Shared letters: bgnr. Private to "Bürgen": eü. Private to "Burgund": du.

"Bürgen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Burgund" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Burgund ← bburgund · brugund · bugrund · burggund · burgnud · burgudn · burgundd · burgunnd

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Bürgen" for "Burgund" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Bürgen" is a noun and "Burgund" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Bürgen" vs "Burgund" - which ranks higher?
"Burgund" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,487 in our German list, against #31,487 for "Bürgen". 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 "Bürgen" and "Burgund" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Bürgen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Burgund" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #919,496 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bürgen" and "Burgund" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "borgen vs Bürgen". 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 #919,496 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