freshvsfreueConfusable pair

Quick tell: fresh is a adjective, freue is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fresh” is an adjective and “freue” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,548
“fresh” frequency rank
#2,058
“freue” frequency rank
20606
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fresh freue
Definition neu 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs freuen

Where the eye mixes fresh and freue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
fresh
5 ch
freue

Look-alike desk: fresh vs freue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fresh is [fɹɛʃ] while freue is [ˈfʁɔɪ̯ə]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20606, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fresh is recorded at frequency rank #18,548, classified as anadj, pronounced [fɹɛʃ]. freue is at rank #2,058, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfʁɔɪ̯ə].

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 20606, this pair ranks #1,895,804 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fresh vs freue

Shared letters: efr. Private to "fresh": hs. Private to "freue": u.

"fresh" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "freue" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • freshfersh · ffresh · frehs · freshh · fressh · frresh · frseh · rfesh
  • freueferue · ffreue · freeu · frreue · fruee · rfeue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fresh" and "freue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fresh" is an adjective and "freue" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "fresh" or "freue" show up more?
"freue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,058 in our German list, against #18,548 for "fresh". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fresh" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "freue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,895,804 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fresh" and "freue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fresh vs Friese". 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 #1,895,804 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