frühevsfrühereConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#5,707
“frühe” frequency rank
#3,732
“frühere” frequency rank
9439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature frühe frühere
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs früh Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Komparativs des Adjektivs früh

Where the eye mixes frühe and frühere

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. frühe runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against frühere's 7 (CCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
frühe
7 ch
frühere

Visual trap between frühe and frühere

A purely visual mix-up. frühe ([ˈfʁyːə]) and frühere ([ˈfʁyːəʁə]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “frühe” sits inside “frühere”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frühe is recorded at frequency rank #5,707, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁyːə]. frühere is at rank #3,732, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁyːəʁə].

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 9439, this pair ranks #1,979,940 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of frühe vs frühere

Shared letters: efhrü. Private to "frühe": -. Private to "frühere": -.

"frühe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "frühere" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "frühe" and "frühere" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfʁyːə] versus [ˈfʁyːəʁə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "frühe" or "frühere" show up more?
"frühere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,732 in our German list, against #5,707 for "frühe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "frühe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frühere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,979,940 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "frühe" and "frühere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Flure vs frühe". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,979,940 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