gehörenvsgehörendeWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#791
“gehören” frequency rank
#26,024
“gehörende” frequency rank
26815
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gehören gehörende
Definition etwas/jemand gehört jemandem: Eigentum von einer Person sein Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gehörend

Where the eye mixes gehören and gehörende

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

7 ch
gehören
9 ch
gehörende

Visual trap between gehören and gehörende

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gehören is [ɡəˈhøːʁən] while gehörende is [ɡəˈhøːʁəndə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “gehören” sits inside “gehörende”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26815, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gehören is recorded at frequency rank #791, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈhøːʁən]. gehörende is at rank #26,024, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈhøːʁəndə].

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 26815, this pair ranks #1,811,952 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gehören vs gehörende

Shared letters: eghnrö. Private to "gehören": -. Private to "gehörende": d.

"gehören" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "gehörende" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gehören" and "gehörende" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gehören" is a verb and "gehörende" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "gehören" vs "gehörende" - which ranks higher?
"gehören" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #791 in our German list, against #26,024 for "gehörende". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gehören" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gehörende" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,811,952 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gehören" and "gehörende" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gehobene vs gehörende". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,811,952 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