duftenvsDürrenConfusable pair

Quick tell: duften is a verb, Dürren is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“duften” is a verb and “Dürren” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,865
“duften” frequency rank
#35,718
“Dürren” frequency rank
81583
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature duften Dürren
Definition angenehmen Geruch abgeben, verströmen, verbreiten Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Dürre

Where the eye mixes duften and Dürren

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

6 ch
duften
6 ch
Dürren

Why the eye confuses duften with Dürren

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: duften is [ˈdʊftn̩] while Dürren is [ˈdʏʁən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81583, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

duften is recorded at frequency rank #45,865, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈdʊftn̩]. Dürren is at rank #35,718, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdʏʁən].

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 81583, this pair ranks #172,968 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of duften vs Dürren

Shared letters: den. Private to "duften": ftu. Private to "Dürren": rü.

"duften" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Dürren" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • duften ← dduften · dfuten · dufetn · dufften · duftenn · duftne · duftten · dutfen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "duften" for "Dürren" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "duften" is a verb and "Dürren" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "duften" or "Dürren"?
"Dürren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,718 in our German list, against #45,865 for "duften". 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 "duften" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dürren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #172,968 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "duften" and "Dürren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "duften vs Dukaten". 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 #172,968 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