GehirnvsgehörenTell them apart

Quick tell: Gehirn is a noun, gehören is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Gehirn” is a noun and “gehören” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,040
“Gehirn” frequency rank
#791
“gehören” frequency rank
3831
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gehirn gehören
Definition der im Kopf gelegene Teil des Zentralnervensystems der Wirbeltiere etwas/jemand gehört jemandem: Eigentum von einer Person sein

Where the eye mixes Gehirn and gehören

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Gehirn runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against gehören's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Gehirn
7 ch
gehören

Visual trap between Gehirn and gehören

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gehirn is [ɡəˈhɪʁn] while gehören is [ɡəˈhøːʁən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3831, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gehirn is recorded at frequency rank #3,040, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈhɪʁn]. gehören is at rank #791, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈhøːʁən].

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 3831, this pair ranks #1,999,267 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Gehirn vs gehören

Shared letters: eghnr. Private to "Gehirn": i. Private to "gehören": ö.

"Gehirn" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "gehören" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Gehirn ← eghirn · gehhirn · gehinr · gehirnn · gehirrn · gehrin · geihrn · ggehirn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Gehirn" for "gehören" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gehirn" is a noun and "gehören" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Gehirn" vs "gehören" - which ranks higher?
"gehören" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #791 in our German list, against #3,040 for "Gehirn". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gehirn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gehören" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,999,267 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gehirn" and "gehören" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gehobene vs gehören". 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 #1,999,267 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