erhofftvserhörtWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#12,901
“erhofft” frequency rank
#35,748
“erhört” frequency rank
48649
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature erhofft erhört
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs erhoffen 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs erhören

Where the eye mixes erhofft and erhört

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

7 ch
erhofft
6 ch
erhört

Visual trap between erhofft and erhört

A purely visual mix-up. erhofft ([ɛɐ̯ˈhɔft]) and erhört ([ɛɐ̯ˈhøːɐ̯t]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48649, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

erhofft is recorded at frequency rank #12,901, classified as averb, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈhɔft]. erhört is at rank #35,748, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈhøːɐ̯t].

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 48649, this pair ranks #1,240,737 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of erhofft vs erhört

Shared letters: ehrt. Private to "erhofft": fo. Private to "erhört": ö.

"erhofft" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCC  ·  "erhört" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • erhofft ← ehrofft · erhfoft · erhhofft · erhofftt · erhoft · erhoftf · erohfft · errhofft

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "erhofft" for "erhört" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɛɐ̯ˈhɔft] versus [ɛɐ̯ˈhøːɐ̯t]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "erhofft" or "erhört"?
"erhofft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,901 in our German list, against #35,748 for "erhört". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "erhofft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "erhört" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,240,737 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "erhofft" and "erhört" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "erbost vs erhört". 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 #1,240,737 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