führendvsführendenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,975
“führend” frequency rank
#4,884
“führenden” frequency rank
26859
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature führend führenden
Definition das Geschehen bestimmend Genitiv Singular Maskulinum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs führend

Where the eye mixes führend and führenden

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. führend runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against führenden's 9 (CVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
führend
9 ch
führenden

Look-alike desk: führend vs führenden

A purely visual mix-up. führend ([ˈfyːʁənt]) and führenden ([ˈfyːʁəndn̩]) 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) - “führend” sits inside “führenden”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26859, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

führend is recorded at frequency rank #21,975, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfyːʁənt]. führenden is at rank #4,884, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfyːʁəndn̩].

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 26859, this pair ranks #1,811,262 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of führend vs führenden

Shared letters: defhnrü. Private to "führend": -. Private to "führenden": -.

"führend" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "führenden" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "führend" for "führenden" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfyːʁənt] versus [ˈfyːʁəndn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "führend" vs "führenden" - which ranks higher?
"führenden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,884 in our German list, against #21,975 for "führend". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "führend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "führenden" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,811,262 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "führend" and "führenden" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "führend vs führendes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,811,262 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