BürgervsButlerConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#922
“Bürger” frequency rank
#12,471
“Butler” frequency rank
13393
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Bürger Butler
Definition Einwohner einer Gemeinde Diener, der bei einer wohlhabenden Familie (insbesondere in Großbritannien) arbeitet

Where the eye mixes Bürger and Butler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Bürger and Butler follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Bürger
6 ch
Butler

Look-alike desk: Bürger vs Butler

A purely visual mix-up. Bürger ([ˈbʏʁɡɐ]) and Butler ([ˈbatlɐ]) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bürger is recorded at frequency rank #922, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʏʁɡɐ]. Butler is at rank #12,471, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbatlɐ].

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 13393, this pair ranks #1,958,284 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Bürger vs Butler

Shared letters: ber. Private to "Bürger": gü. Private to "Butler": ltu.

"Bürger" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Butler" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Butler ← bbutler · btuler · bulter · butelr · butlerr · butller · butlre · buttler

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Bürger" and "Butler" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈbʏʁɡɐ] versus [ˈbatlɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Bürger" or "Butler" show up more?
"Bürger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #922 in our German list, against #12,471 for "Butler". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Bürger" and "Butler" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Bürger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Butler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,958,284 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bürger" and "Butler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "boiler vs Butler". 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 #1,958,284 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