GrubevsguteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#8,724
“Grube” frequency rank
#226
“gute” frequency rank
8950
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Grube gute
Definition natürliche oder künstlich angelegte Vertiefung im Erdboden Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs gut

Where the eye mixes Grube and gute

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

5 ch
Grube
4 ch
gute

Visual trap between Grube and gute

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Grube is [ˈɡʁuːbə] 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 8950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Grube is recorded at frequency rank #8,724, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡʁuːbə]. 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 8950, this pair ranks #1,982,092 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Grube vs gute

Shared letters: egu. Private to "Grube": br. Private to "gute": t.

"Grube" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "gute" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Grubeggrube · grbue · grrube · grubbe · grueb · gurbe · rgube
  • guteggute · gtue · guet · gutte · ugte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Grube" and "gute" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Grube" is a noun and "gute" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Grube" vs "gute" - which ranks higher?
"gute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #226 in our German list, against #8,724 for "Grube". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Grube" 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 #1,982,092 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Grube" and "gute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grave vs Grube". 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 #1,982,092 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