GründevsgründenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,596
“Gründe” frequency rank
#1,085
“gründen” frequency rank
2681
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gründe gründen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Grund eine Institution, eine Organisation einrichten

Where the eye mixes Gründe and gründen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Gründe
7 ch
gründen

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gründe is [ˈɡʁʏndə] while gründen is [ˈɡʁʏndn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Gründe” sits inside “gründen”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gründe is recorded at frequency rank #1,596, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡʁʏndə]. gründen is at rank #1,085, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈɡʁʏndn̩].

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 2681, this pair ranks #2,001,811 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Gründe vs gründen

Shared letters: degnrü. Private to "Gründe": -. Private to "gründen": -.

"Gründe" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "gründen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Gründe" and "gründen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gründe" is a noun and "gründen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Gründe" or "gründen"?
"gründen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,085 in our German list, against #1,596 for "Gründe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Gründe" and "gründen". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gründe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gründen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,001,811 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gründe" and "gründen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gemünden vs gründen". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list