gunsvsgutesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#34,148
“guns” frequency rank
#793
“gutes” frequency rank
34941
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature guns gutes
Definition Plural des Substantivs gun Nominativ Singular Neutrum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs gut

Where the eye mixes guns and gutes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. guns runs 4 letters (CVCC) against gutes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
guns
5 ch
gutes

Look-alike desk: guns vs gutes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: guns is [ɡʌnz] while gutes is [ˈɡuːtəs]. 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 34941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

guns is recorded at frequency rank #34,148, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡʌnz]. gutes is at rank #793, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɡuːtəs].

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 34941, this pair ranks #1,651,746 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of guns vs gutes

Shared letters: gsu. Private to "guns": n. Private to "gutes": et.

"guns" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "gutes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guns ← gguns · gnus · gunns · gunss · gusn · ugns
  • gutes ← ggutes · gtues · guets · gutess · gutse · guttes · ugtes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "guns" and "gutes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "guns" is a noun and "gutes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "guns" vs "gutes" - which ranks higher?
"gutes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #793 in our German list, against #34,148 for "guns". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "guns" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gutes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,651,746 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "guns" and "gutes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "geis vs guns". 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 #1,651,746 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