hintervsHirtenTell them apart

Quick tell: hinter is a preposition, Hirten is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hinter” is a preposition and “Hirten” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#410
“hinter” frequency rank
#17,611
“Hirten” frequency rank
18021
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hinter Hirten
Definition in Richtung der Rückseite von etwas entfernt Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Hirte

Where the eye mixes hinter and Hirten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
hinter
6 ch
Hirten

Visual trap between hinter and Hirten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hinter is [ˈhɪntɐ] while Hirten is [ˈhɪʁtn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18021, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hinter is recorded at frequency rank #410, classified as aprep, pronounced [ˈhɪntɐ]. Hirten is at rank #17,611, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɪʁtn̩].

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 18021, this pair ranks #1,922,141 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hinter vs Hirten

Shared letters: ehinrt. Private to "hinter": -. Private to "Hirten": -.

"hinter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Hirten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hinterhhinter · hinetr · hinnter · hinterr · hintre · hintter · hitner · hniter
  • Hirtenhhirten · hiretn · hirrten · hirtenn · hirtne · hirtten · hitren · hriten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hinter" for "Hirten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hinter" is a preposition and "Hirten" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hinter" vs "Hirten" - which ranks higher?
"hinter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #410 in our German list, against #17,611 for "Hirten". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hinter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hirten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,922,141 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hinter" and "Hirten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "harren vs Hirten". 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 #1,922,141 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