früher vs frühes, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#518
“früher” frequency rank: #24,725
“frühes” frequency rank: 25243
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	früher	frühes
Definition	zeitlich vorher	Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs früh

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set früher and frühes apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

früher

6 ch

frühes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. früher ([ˈfʁyːɐ]) 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 a single letter - r in “früher” becomes s in “frühes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25243, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

früher is recorded at frequency rank #518, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁyːɐ]. 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 25243, this pair ranks #1,836,090 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of früher vs frühes

Shared letters: efhrü. Private to "früher": -. Private to "frühes": s.

"früher" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "frühes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Frequency comparison

früher#518

frühes#24,725

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "früher" and "frühes" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently ([ˈfʁyːɐ] versus [ˈfʁyːəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "früher" or "frühes"?

"früher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #518 in our German list, against #24,725 for "frühes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering früher vs frühes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “früher” entry
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