frohevsfrühesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,713
“frohe” frequency rank
#24,725
“frühes” frequency rank
33438
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature frohe frühes
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs froh Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs früh

Where the eye mixes frohe and frühes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. frohe runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against frühes's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
frohe
6 ch
frühes

Why the eye confuses frohe with frühes

A purely visual mix-up. frohe ([ˈfʁoːə]) and frühes ([ˈfʁyːəs]) 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 33438, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frohe is recorded at frequency rank #8,713, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁoːə]. frühes is at rank #24,725, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁyːəs].

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 33438, this pair ranks #1,685,983 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of frohe vs frühes

Shared letters: efhr. Private to "frohe": o. Private to "frühes": sü.

"frohe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "frühes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • frohe ← ffrohe · forhe · frhoe · froeh · frohhe · frrohe · rfohe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "frohe" and "frühes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfʁoːə] versus [ˈfʁyːəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "frohe" vs "frühes" - which ranks higher?
"frohe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,713 in our German list, against #24,725 for "frühes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "frohe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frühes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,685,983 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "frohe" and "frühes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "frites vs frühes". 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 #1,685,983 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