FreudenvsfreutenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#16,429
“Freuden” frequency rank
#28,193
“freuten” frequency rank
44622
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Freuden freuten
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Freude 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs freuen

Where the eye mixes Freuden and freuten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Freuden and freuten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
Freuden
7 ch
freuten

Look-alike desk: Freuden vs freuten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Freuden is [ˈfʁɔɪ̯dn̩] while freuten is [ˈfʁɔɪ̯tn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “Freuden” becomes t in “freuten”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44622, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Freuden is recorded at frequency rank #16,429, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfʁɔɪ̯dn̩]. freuten is at rank #28,193, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfʁɔɪ̯tn̩].

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 44622, this pair ranks #1,380,191 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Freuden vs freuten

Shared letters: efnru. Private to "Freuden": d. Private to "freuten": t.

"Freuden" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "freuten" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Freuden ← feruden · ffreuden · freduen · freudden · freudenn · freuedn · frreuden · frueden
  • freuten ← feruten · ffreuten · fretuen · freuetn · freutenn · freutne · freutten · frreuten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Freuden" for "freuten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Freuden" is a noun and "freuten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Freuden" or "freuten" show up more?
"Freuden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,429 in our German list, against #28,193 for "freuten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Freuden" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "freuten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,380,191 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Freuden" and "freuten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "freuten vs Fritten". 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 #1,380,191 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