frozen vs frühen, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#39,941
“frozen” frequency rank: #2,025
“frühen” frequency rank: 41966
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	frozen	frühen
Definition	Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs freeze	Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs früh

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set frozen and frühen apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

frozen

6 ch

frühen

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: frozen is averb and frühenanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frozen is recorded at frequency rank #39,941, classified as averb, pronounced […]. frühen is at rank #2,025, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁyːən].

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 41966, this pair ranks #1,463,655 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of frozen vs frühen

Shared letters: efnr. Private to "frozen": oz. Private to "frühen": hü.

"frozen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "frühen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

frozen ← ffrozen · forzen · froezn · frozenn · frozne · frozzen · frrozen · frzoen

Frequency comparison

frozen#39,941

frühen#2,025

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "frozen" and "frühen" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "frozen" is a verb and "frühen" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "frozen" or "frühen"?

"frühen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,025 in our German list, against #39,941 for "frozen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering frozen vs frühen

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “frozen”; for an adjective, it's “frühen”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “frozen” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable