ErbauervserbauteConfusable pair

Quick tell: Erbauer is a noun, erbaute is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Erbauer” is a noun and “erbaute” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,567
“Erbauer” frequency rank
#22,700
“erbaute” frequency rank
56267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Erbauer erbaute
Definition Person, die etwas durch Bauen erschafft (insbesondere Gebäude oder Bauwerke) Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs erbaut

Where the eye mixes Erbauer and erbaute

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Erbauer
7 ch
erbaute

Why the eye confuses Erbauer with erbaute

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Erbauer is [ɛɐ̯ˈbaʊ̯ɐ] while erbaute is [ɛɐ̯ˈbaʊ̯tə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Erbauer is recorded at frequency rank #33,567, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈbaʊ̯ɐ]. erbaute is at rank #22,700, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈbaʊ̯tə].

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 56267, this pair ranks #946,876 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Erbauer vs erbaute

Shared letters: aberu. Private to "Erbauer": -. Private to "erbaute": t.

"Erbauer" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVC  ·  "erbaute" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Erbauerebrauer · erabuer · erbaeur · erbauerr · erbaure · erbbauer · erbuaer · errbauer
  • erbauteebraute · erabute · erbatue · erbauet · erbautte · erbbaute · erbuate · errbaute

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Erbauer" and "erbaute" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Erbauer" is a noun and "erbaute" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Erbauer" or "erbaute" show up more?
"erbaute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,700 in our German list, against #33,567 for "Erbauer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Erbauer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "erbaute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #946,876 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Erbauer" and "erbaute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "erbauen vs Erbauer". 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 #946,876 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