grobvsgrobenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“grob” and “groben” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,843
“grob” frequency rank
#12,728
“groben” frequency rank
18571
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grob groben
Definition unfein, unbehauen, unbearbeitet, unrein von Stoffen, Oberflächen und Material, ungenau, unscharf Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs grob

Where the eye mixes grob and groben

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
grob
6 ch
groben

Visual trap between grob and groben

A purely visual mix-up. grob ([ɡʁoːp]) and groben ([ˈɡʁoːbn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “grob” sits inside “groben”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18571, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grob is recorded at frequency rank #5,843, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡʁoːp]. groben is at rank #12,728, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɡʁoːbn̩].

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 18571, this pair ranks #1,916,978 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of grob vs groben

Shared letters: bgor. Private to "grob": -. Private to "groben": en.

"grob" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "groben" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grobggrob · gorb · grbo · grobb · grrob · rgob
  • grobenggroben · gorben · grboen · grobben · grobenn · grobne · groebn · grroben

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "grob" and "groben" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ɡʁoːp] versus [ˈɡʁoːbn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "grob" or "groben" show up more?
"grob" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,843 in our German list, against #12,728 for "groben". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "grob" and "groben" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "grob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "groben" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,916,978 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grob" and "groben" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gao vs grob". 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 #1,916,978 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