häufigenvsheutigenConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#17,939
“häufigen” frequency rank
#1,200
“heutigen” frequency rank
19139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature häufigen heutigen
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs häufig Genitiv Singular Maskulinum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs heutig

Where the eye mixes häufigen and heutigen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. häufigen and heutigen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
häufigen
8 ch
heutigen

Why the eye confuses häufigen with heutigen

A purely visual mix-up. häufigen ([ˈhɔɪ̯fɪɡn̩]) and heutigen ([ˈhɔɪ̯tɪɡn̩]) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

häufigen is recorded at frequency rank #17,939, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈhɔɪ̯fɪɡn̩]. heutigen is at rank #1,200, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈhɔɪ̯tɪɡn̩].

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 19139, this pair ranks #1,911,452 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of häufigen vs heutigen

Shared letters: eghinu. Private to "häufigen": . Private to "heutigen": t.

"häufigen" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC  ·  "heutigen" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heutigenehutigen · hetuigen · heuitgen · heutgien · heutiegn · heutigenn · heutiggen · heutigne

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "häufigen" for "heutigen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhɔɪ̯fɪɡn̩] versus [ˈhɔɪ̯tɪɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "häufigen" or "heutigen" show up more?
"heutigen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,200 in our German list, against #17,939 for "häufigen". 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 "häufigen" and "heutigen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "häufigen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "heutigen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,911,452 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "häufigen" and "heutigen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "häufigen vs heurigen". 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 #1,911,452 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