Which to use
“Harem” is a noun and “hören” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,585
- “Harem” frequency rank
- #702
- “hören” frequency rank
- 41287
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Harem | hören |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | von den Männern abgegrenzter Wohnbereich für Frauen in einem Haus | mit den Ohren |
Where the eye mixes Harem and hören
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Harem and hören follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: Harem vs hören
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Harem is [ˈhaːʁɛm] while hören is [ˈhøːʁən]. 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 41287, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Harem is recorded at frequency rank #40,585, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaːʁɛm]. hören is at rank #702, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhøːʁən].
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 41287, this pair ranks #1,483,928 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Harem vs hören
Shared letters: ehr. Private to "Harem": am. Private to "hören": nö.
"Harem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "hören" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Harem ← ahrem · haerm · haremm · harme · harrem · hharem · hraem
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Harem" for "hören" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Harem" or "hören" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Harem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hören" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,483,928 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Harem" and "hören" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Harem vs haze". 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 #1,483,928 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.