gehorchenvsgehörenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“gehorchen” and “gehören” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,586
“gehorchen” frequency rank
#791
“gehören” frequency rank
20377
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gehorchen gehören
Definition einer Anweisung Folge leisten; einen Befehl ausführen etwas/jemand gehört jemandem: Eigentum von einer Person sein

Where the eye mixes gehorchen and gehören

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. gehorchen runs 9 letters (CVCVCCCVC) against gehören's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
gehorchen
7 ch
gehören

Look-alike desk: gehorchen vs gehören

A purely visual mix-up. gehorchen ([ɡəˈhɔʁçn̩]) and gehören ([ɡəˈhøːʁən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20377, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gehorchen is recorded at frequency rank #19,586, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈhɔʁçn̩]. 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 20377, this pair ranks #1,898,348 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gehorchen vs gehören

Shared letters: eghnr. Private to "gehorchen": co. Private to "gehören": ö.

"gehorchen" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCCVC  ·  "gehören" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gehorcheneghorchen · gehhorchen · gehocrhen · gehorcchen · gehorcehn · gehorchenn · gehorchhen · gehorchne

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gehorchen" for "gehören" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɡəˈhɔʁçn̩] versus [ɡəˈhøːʁən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gehorchen" or "gehören"?
"gehören" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #791 in our German list, against #19,586 for "gehorchen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "gehorchen" 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 #1,898,348 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gehorchen" and "gehören" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gehorchen vs gehorcht". 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 #1,898,348 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