geflohenvsgefrorenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: geflohen is a verb, gefroren is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#11,057
“geflohen” frequency rank
#31,058
“gefroren” frequency rank
42115
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature geflohen gefroren
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs fliehen durch Kälteeinwirkung fest und hart geworden, aufgrund von Kälte erstarrt

Where the eye mixes geflohen and gefroren

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. geflohen and gefroren follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
geflohen
8 ch
gefroren

Visual trap between geflohen and gefroren

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: geflohen is [ɡəˈfloːən] while gefroren is [ɡəˈfʁoːʁən]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42115, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

geflohen is recorded at frequency rank #11,057, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈfloːən]. gefroren is at rank #31,058, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈfʁoːʁən].

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 42115, this pair ranks #1,459,135 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of geflohen vs gefroren

Shared letters: efgno. Private to "geflohen": hl. Private to "gefroren": r.

"geflohen" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "gefroren" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • geflohenegflohen · gefflohen · geflhoen · gefllohen · gefloehn · geflohenn · geflohhen · geflohne
  • gefrorenegfroren · geffroren · geforren · gefroern · gefrorenn · gefrorne · gefrorren · gefrroen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "geflohen" for "gefroren" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "geflohen" is a verb and "gefroren" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "geflohen" or "gefroren"?
"geflohen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,057 in our German list, against #31,058 for "gefroren". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "geflohen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gefroren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,459,135 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "geflohen" and "gefroren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gefroren vs gefrorene". 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 #1,459,135 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