gesternvsGüternWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: gestern is a adverb, Gütern is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gestern” is an adverb and “Gütern” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#617
“gestern” frequency rank
#14,582
“Gütern” frequency rank
15199
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gestern Gütern
Definition am Tag unmittelbar vor dem heutigen Tag Dativ Plural des Substantivs Gut

Where the eye mixes gestern and Gütern

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
gestern
6 ch
Gütern

Look-alike desk: gestern vs Gütern

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gestern is [ˈɡɛstɐn] while Gütern is [ˈɡyːtɐn]. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15199, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gestern is recorded at frequency rank #617, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈɡɛstɐn]. Gütern is at rank #14,582, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡyːtɐn].

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 15199, this pair ranks #1,945,660 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gestern vs Gütern

Shared letters: egnrt. Private to "gestern": s. Private to "Gütern": ü.

"gestern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "Gütern" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gesternegstern · gesetrn · gesstern · gestenr · gesternn · gesterrn · gestren · gesttern

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gestern" and "Gütern" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gestern" is an adverb and "Gütern" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gestern" or "Gütern"?
"gestern" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #617 in our German list, against #14,582 for "Gütern". 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 "gestern" and "Gütern" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gestern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gütern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,945,660 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gestern" and "Gütern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Guben vs Gütern". 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 #1,945,660 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