frühen vs fügen, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#2,025
“frühen” frequency rank: #11,056
“fügen” frequency rank: 13081
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	frühen	fügen
Definition	Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs früh	Dinge so aneinandersetzen, miteinander in einen Zusammenhang bringen, dass daraus ein Ganzes wird

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch

frühen

5 ch

fügen

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: frühen is [ˈfʁyːən] while fügen is [ˈfyːɡn̩]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13081, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frühen is recorded at frequency rank #2,025, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁyːən]. fügen is at rank #11,056, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfyːɡn̩].

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 13081, this pair ranks #1,960,245 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of frühen vs fügen

Shared letters: efnü. Private to "frühen": hr. Private to "fügen": g.

"frühen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "fügen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequency comparison

frühen#2,025

fügen#11,056

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"frühen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,025 in our German list, against #11,056 for "fügen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering frühen vs fügen

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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