frühestevsfrühestenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,195
“früheste” frequency rank
#20,923
“frühesten” frequency rank
49118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature früheste frühesten
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Superlativs des Adjektivs früh Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Superlativs des Adjektivs früh

Where the eye mixes früheste and frühesten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. früheste runs 8 letters (CCVCVCCV) against frühesten's 9 (CCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
früheste
9 ch
frühesten

Visual trap between früheste and frühesten

A purely visual mix-up. früheste ([ˈfʁyːəstə]) and frühesten ([ˈfʁyːəstn̩]) 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 extra letter(s) - “früheste” sits inside “frühesten”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

früheste is recorded at frequency rank #28,195, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁyːəstə]. frühesten is at rank #20,923, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁyːəstn̩].

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 49118, this pair ranks #1,223,479 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of früheste vs frühesten

Shared letters: efhrstü. Private to "früheste": -. Private to "frühesten": n.

"früheste" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV  ·  "frühesten" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "früheste" and "frühesten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfʁyːəstə] versus [ˈfʁyːəstn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "früheste" or "frühesten" show up more?
"frühesten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,923 in our German list, against #28,195 for "früheste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "früheste" and "frühesten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "früheste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frühesten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,223,479 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "früheste" and "frühesten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "früheste vs frühester". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,223,479 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