glühenvsgutenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#32,571
“glühen” frequency rank
#330
“guten” frequency rank
32901
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature glühen guten
Definition vor Hitze in oranger bis rötlicher Farbe leuchten Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs gut

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set glühen and guten apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
glühen
5 ch
guten

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: glühen is [ˈɡlyːən] 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32901, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

glühen is recorded at frequency rank #32,571, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈɡlyːən]. 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 32901, this pair ranks #1,697,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of glühen vs guten

Shared letters: egn. Private to "glühen": hlü. Private to "guten": tu.

"glühen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "guten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gutengguten · gtuen · guetn · gutenn · gutne · gutten · ugten

Frequency comparison

glühen#32,571
guten#330

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "glühen" and "guten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "glühen" is a verb and "guten" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "glühen" or "guten"?
"guten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #330 in our German list, against #32,571 for "glühen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering glühen vs guten

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “glühen”; for an adjective, it's “guten”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “glühen” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list