gutevsGüternWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#226
“gute” frequency rank
#14,582
“Gütern” frequency rank
14808
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gute Gütern
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs gut Dativ Plural des Substantivs Gut

Where the eye mixes gute and Gütern

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

4 ch
gute
6 ch
Gütern

Look-alike desk: gute vs Gütern

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gute is [ˈɡuːtə] while Gütern is [ˈɡyːtɐn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14808, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gute is recorded at frequency rank #226, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈɡuːtə]. Gütern is at rank #14,582, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡyːtɐn].

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 14808, this pair ranks #1,948,585 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gute vs Gütern

Shared letters: egt. Private to "gute": u. Private to "Gütern": nrü.

"gute" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Gütern" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guteggute · gtue · guet · gutte · ugte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gute" and "Gütern" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gute" is an adjective and "Gütern" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "gute" vs "Gütern" - which ranks higher?
"gute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #226 in our German list, against #14,582 for "Gütern". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gütern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,948,585 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gute" and "Gütern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Guben vs Gütern". 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 #1,948,585 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