GötzevsguteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#11,248
“Götze” frequency rank
#226
“gute” frequency rank
11474
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Götze gute
Definition heidnischer Gott (aus der Sicht der monotheistischen Religionen); falscher Gott (abwertend) Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs gut

Where the eye mixes Götze and gute

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Götze
4 ch
gute

Visual trap between Götze and gute

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Götze is [ˈɡœt͡sə] while gute is [ˈɡuːtə]. 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 11474, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Götze is recorded at frequency rank #11,248, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡœt͡sə]. gute is at rank #226, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɡuːtə].

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 11474, this pair ranks #1,969,700 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Götze vs gute

Shared letters: egt. Private to "Götze": . Private to "gute": u.

"Götze" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "gute" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guteggute · gtue · guet · gutte · ugte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Götze" and "gute" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Götze" is a noun and "gute" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Götze" or "gute" show up more?
"gute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #226 in our German list, against #11,248 for "Götze". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Götze" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,969,700 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Götze" and "gute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glotzen vs Götze". 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 #1,969,700 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