herbevsHureWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#32,086
“herbe” frequency rank
#8,882
“Hure” frequency rank
40968
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature herbe Hure
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs herb Frau, die für Geld sexuelle Handlungen vornimmt; Prostituierte

Where the eye mixes herbe and Hure

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

5 ch
herbe
4 ch
Hure

Look-alike desk: herbe vs Hure

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: herbe is [ˈhɛʁbə] while Hure is [ˈhuːʁə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 40968, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

herbe is recorded at frequency rank #32,086, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈhɛʁbə]. Hure is at rank #8,882, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhuːʁə].

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 40968, this pair ranks #1,493,110 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of herbe vs Hure

Shared letters: ehr. Private to "herbe": b. Private to "Hure": u.

"herbe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Hure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • herbeehrbe · hebre · herbbe · hereb · herrbe · hherbe · hrebe
  • Hurehhure · hrue · huer · hurre · uhre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "herbe" for "Hure" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "herbe" is an adjective and "Hure" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "herbe" or "Hure" show up more?
"Hure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,882 in our German list, against #32,086 for "herbe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "herbe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,493,110 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "herbe" and "Hure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hegte vs herbe". 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 #1,493,110 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