glaubenvsGrubenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: glauben is a verb, Gruben is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“glauben” is a verb and “Gruben” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#659
“glauben” frequency rank
#19,595
“Gruben” frequency rank
20254
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature glauben Gruben
Definition religiös sein, an einen oder mehrere Götter glauben; in seinem Glauben überzeugt sein Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Grube

Where the eye mixes glauben and Gruben

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

7 ch
glauben
6 ch
Gruben

Visual trap between glauben and Gruben

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: glauben is [ˈɡlaʊ̯bn̩] while Gruben is [ˈɡʁuːbn̩]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20254, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

glauben is recorded at frequency rank #659, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈɡlaʊ̯bn̩]. Gruben is at rank #19,595, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡʁuːbn̩].

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 20254, this pair ranks #1,899,678 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of glauben vs Gruben

Shared letters: begnu. Private to "glauben": al. Private to "Gruben": r.

"glauben" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "Gruben" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • glaubengaluben · gglauben · glabuen · glaubben · glaubenn · glaubne · glauebn · gllauben
  • Grubenggruben · grbuen · grruben · grubben · grubenn · grubne · gruebn · gurben

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "glauben" for "Gruben" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "glauben" is a verb and "Gruben" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "glauben" or "Gruben"?
"glauben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #659 in our German list, against #19,595 for "Gruben". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "glauben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gruben" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,899,678 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "glauben" and "Gruben" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grobes vs Gruben". 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 #1,899,678 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