FreudevsfreueTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#1,157
“Freude” frequency rank
#2,058
“freue” frequency rank
3215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Freude freue
Definition positives Gefühl 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs freuen

Where the eye mixes Freude and freue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Freude
5 ch
freue

Look-alike desk: Freude vs freue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Freude is [ˈfʁɔɪ̯də] while freue is [ˈfʁɔɪ̯ə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Freude is recorded at frequency rank #1,157, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfʁɔɪ̯də]. 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 3215, this pair ranks #2,000,689 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Freude vs freue

Shared letters: efru. Private to "Freude": d. Private to "freue": -.

"Freude" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "freue" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Freudeferude · ffreude · fredue · freudde · freued · frreude · fruede · rfeude
  • freueferue · ffreue · freeu · frreue · fruee · rfeue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Freude" and "freue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Freude" is a noun and "freue" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Freude" or "freue" show up more?
"Freude" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,157 in our German list, against #2,058 for "freue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Freude" 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 #2,000,689 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Freude" and "freue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "freue vs friere". 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 #2,000,689 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