gutenvsgütigTell them apart

Which to use

“guten” and “gütig” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#330
“guten” frequency rank
#36,974
“gütig” frequency rank
37304
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature guten gütig
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs gut jemandem freundlich gesinnt

Where the eye mixes guten and gütig

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. guten and gütig follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
guten
5 ch
gütig

Look-alike desk: guten vs gütig

A purely visual mix-up. guten ([ˈɡuːtn̩]) and gütig ([ˈɡyːtɪç]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37304, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

guten is recorded at frequency rank #330, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈɡuːtn̩]. gütig is at rank #36,974, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɡyːtɪç].

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 37304, this pair ranks #1,593,670 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of guten vs gütig

Shared letters: gt. Private to "guten": enu. Private to "gütig": iü.

"guten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "gütig" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guten ← gguten · gtuen · guetn · gutenn · gutne · gutten · ugten

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "guten" and "gütig" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈɡuːtn̩] versus [ˈɡyːtɪç]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "guten" or "gütig"?
"guten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #330 in our German list, against #36,974 for "gütig". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "guten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gütig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,593,670 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "guten" and "gütig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gotik vs gütig". 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 #1,593,670 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