GebäudevsgebauteWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Gebäude is a noun, gebaute is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Gebäude” is a noun and “gebaute” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,057
“Gebäude” frequency rank
#18,253
“gebaute” frequency rank
19310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gebäude gebaute
Definition ein vom Menschen errichtetes, meist oberirdisches, ortsfestes Konstrukt/Bauwerk, das einen oder mehrere Räume enthält Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gebaut

Where the eye mixes Gebäude and gebaute

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Gebäude and gebaute follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
Gebäude
7 ch
gebaute

Why the eye confuses Gebäude with gebaute

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gebäude is [ɡəˈbɔɪ̯də] while gebaute is [ɡəˈbaʊ̯tə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gebäude is recorded at frequency rank #1,057, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈbɔɪ̯də]. gebaute is at rank #18,253, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈbaʊ̯tə].

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 19310, this pair ranks #1,909,719 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Gebäude vs gebaute

Shared letters: begu. Private to "Gebäude": dä. Private to "gebaute": at.

"Gebäude" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "gebaute" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gebaute ← egbaute · gbeaute · geabute · gebatue · gebauet · gebautte · gebbaute · gebuate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Gebäude" and "gebaute" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gebäude" is a noun and "gebaute" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Gebäude" or "gebaute"?
"Gebäude" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,057 in our German list, against #18,253 for "gebaute". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gebäude" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gebaute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,909,719 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gebäude" and "gebaute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gebaute vs gemalte". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,909,719 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