gehobenevsgehörenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#31,061
“gehobene” frequency rank
#791
“gehören” frequency rank
31852
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gehobene gehören
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs gehoben etwas/jemand gehört jemandem: Eigentum von einer Person sein

Where the eye mixes gehobene and gehören

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. gehobene runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against gehören's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
gehobene
7 ch
gehören

Look-alike desk: gehobene vs gehören

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gehobene is [ɡəˈhoːbənə] 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31852, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gehobene is recorded at frequency rank #31,061, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈhoːbənə]. 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 31852, this pair ranks #1,719,725 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gehobene vs gehören

Shared letters: eghn. Private to "gehobene": bo. Private to "gehören": .

"gehobene" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "gehören" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gehobeneeghobene · gehboene · gehhobene · gehobbene · gehobeen · gehobnee · gehoebne · geohbene

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gehobene" and "gehören" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gehobene" is an adjective and "gehören" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "gehobene" or "gehören" show up more?
"gehören" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #791 in our German list, against #31,061 for "gehobene". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gehobene" 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 #1,719,725 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gehobene" and "gehören" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gehobene vs gehobener". 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 #1,719,725 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