Which to use
“heilen” is a verb and “herben” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,930
- “heilen” frequency rank
- #40,593
- “herben” frequency rank
- 48523
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heilen | herben |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | jemanden gesund machen, eine Krankheit, ein Leiden beseitigen, heil machen | Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs herb |
Where the eye mixes heilen and herben
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. heilen (CVVCVC) and herben (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: heilen vs herben
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heilen is [ˈhaɪ̯lən] while herben is [ˈhɛʁbn̩]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48523, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
heilen is recorded at frequency rank #7,930, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯lən]. herben is at rank #40,593, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈhɛʁbn̩].
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 48523, this pair ranks #1,245,448 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of heilen vs herben
Shared letters: ehn. Private to "heilen": il. Private to "herben": br.
"heilen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "herben" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "heilen" and "herben" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "heilen" vs "herben" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "heilen" and "herben" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "heilen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "herben" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,245,448 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heilen" and "herben" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "harren vs herben". 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 #1,245,448 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.