granvsGrüneWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: gran is a adjective, Grüne is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#13,386
“gran” frequency rank
#1,481
“Grüne” frequency rank
14867
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gran Grüne
Definition groß, hochgewachsen in der freien Natur, in die freie Natur

Letter map: gran vs Grüne

Shared letters muted; letters that set gran and Grüne apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
gran
5 ch
Grüne

Grammar separator: gran vs Grüne

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: gran is anadjective and Grüneanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14867, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gran is recorded at frequency rank #13,386, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. Grüne is at rank #1,481, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡʁyːnə].

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 14867, this pair ranks #1,948,158 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gran vs Grüne

Shared letters: gnr. Private to "gran": a. Private to "Grüne": .

"gran" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "Grüne" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • granggran · grann · grna · grran · rgan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gran" for "Grüne" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gran" is an adjective and "Grüne" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gran" or "Grüne"?
"Grüne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,481 in our German list, against #13,386 for "gran". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "gran" and "Grüne".

  • Full dictionary entry for "gran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Grüne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,948,158 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gran" and "Grüne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gran 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 #1,948,158 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