GründersvsgründeteConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#39,406
“Gründers” frequency rank
#7,924
“gründete” frequency rank
47330
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gründers gründete
Definition Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Gründer 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs gründen

Where the eye mixes Gründers and gründete

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Gründers (CCVCCVCC) and gründete (CCVCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
Gründers
8 ch
gründete

Look-alike desk: Gründers vs gründete

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gründers is [ˈɡʁʏndɐs] while gründete is [ˈɡʁʏndətə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47330, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gründers is recorded at frequency rank #39,406, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡʁʏndɐs]. gründete is at rank #7,924, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈɡʁʏndətə].

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 47330, this pair ranks #1,288,116 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Gründers vs gründete

Shared letters: degnrü. Private to "Gründers": s. Private to "gründete": t.

"Gründers" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "gründete" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Gründers" for "gründete" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gründers" is a noun and "gründete" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Gründers" or "gründete" show up more?
"gründete" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,924 in our German list, against #39,406 for "Gründers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "Gründers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gründete" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,288,116 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gründers" and "gründete" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gründern vs Gründers". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,288,116 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