GestenvsgutenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Gesten is a noun, guten is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Gesten” is a noun and “guten” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,901
“Gesten” frequency rank
#330
“guten” frequency rank
16231
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gesten guten
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Geste Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs gut

Where the eye mixes Gesten and guten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Gesten
5 ch
guten

Why the eye confuses Gesten with guten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gesten is [ˈɡeːstn̩] while guten is [ˈɡuːtn̩]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16231, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gesten is recorded at frequency rank #15,901, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡeːstn̩]. guten is at rank #330, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɡuːtn̩].

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 16231, this pair ranks #1,937,511 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Gesten vs guten

Shared letters: egnt. Private to "Gesten": s. Private to "guten": u.

"Gesten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "guten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Gestenegsten · gesetn · gessten · gestenn · gestne · gestten · getsen · ggesten
  • gutengguten · gtuen · guetn · gutenn · gutne · gutten · ugten

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Gesten" and "guten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gesten" is a noun and "guten" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Gesten" or "guten"?
"guten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #330 in our German list, against #15,901 for "Gesten". 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 "Gesten" and "guten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gesten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,937,511 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gesten" and "guten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gastes vs Gesten". 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 #1,937,511 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