goesvsgolemTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#17,311
“goes” frequency rank
#32,572
“golem” frequency rank
49883
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature goes golem
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs go Golem

Letter map: goes vs golem

Shared letters muted; letters that set goes and golem apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. goes runs 4 letters (CVVC) against golem's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
goes
5 ch
golem

Grammar separator: goes vs golem

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: goes is averb and golemanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49883, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

goes is recorded at frequency rank #17,311, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəʊz]. golem is at rank #32,572, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 49883, this pair ranks #1,194,767 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of goes vs golem

Shared letters: ego. Private to "goes": s. Private to "golem": lm.

"goes" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "golem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • goes ← geos · ggoes · goess · gose · oges
  • golem ← ggolem · gloem · goelm · golemm · gollem · golme · oglem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "goes" for "golem" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "goes" is a verb and "golem" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "goes" vs "golem" - which ranks higher?
"goes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,311 in our German list, against #32,572 for "golem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "goes" and "golem".

  • Full dictionary entry for "goes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "golem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,194,767 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "goes" and "golem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "golem vs puzzles". 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 #1,194,767 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