gehnvsGehörTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#11,434
“gehn” frequency rank
#9,201
“Gehör” frequency rank
20635
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gehn Gehör
Definition verkürzte bzw. ursprüngliche Schreibweise von gehen allgemein Beachtung, Zuhören, „Gehör verschaffen“

Where the eye mixes gehn and Gehör

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gehn runs 4 letters (CVCC) against Gehör's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
gehn
5 ch
Gehör

Visual trap between gehn and Gehör

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gehn is [ɡeːn] while Gehör is [ɡəˈhøːɐ̯]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20635, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gehn is recorded at frequency rank #11,434, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡeːn]. Gehör is at rank #9,201, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈhøːɐ̯].

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 20635, this pair ranks #1,895,479 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gehn vs Gehör

Shared letters: egh. Private to "gehn": n. Private to "Gehör": rö.

"gehn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Gehör" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gehn ← eghn · gehhn · gehnn · genh · ggehn · ghen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gehn" for "Gehör" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gehn" is a verb and "Gehör" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "gehn" or "Gehör" show up more?
"Gehör" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,201 in our German list, against #11,434 for "gehn". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gehn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gehör" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,895,479 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gehn" and "Gehör" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gehn vs geis". 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 #1,895,479 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