hobenvsHörernWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hoben is a verb, Hörern is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hoben” is a verb and “Hörern” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,101
“hoben” frequency rank
#43,982
“Hörern” frequency rank
75083
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hoben Hörern
Definition 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs heben Dativ Plural des Substantivs Hörer

Where the eye mixes hoben and Hörern

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hoben runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against Hörern's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
hoben
6 ch
Hörern

Visual trap between hoben and Hörern

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hoben is [ˈhoːbn̩] while Hörern is [ˈhøːʁɐn]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hoben is recorded at frequency rank #31,101, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhoːbn̩]. Hörern is at rank #43,982, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhøːʁɐn].

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 75083, this pair ranks #316,861 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hoben vs Hörern

Shared letters: ehn. Private to "hoben": bo. Private to "Hörern": rö.

"hoben" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Hörern" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hoben ← hboen · hhoben · hobben · hobenn · hobne · hoebn · ohben

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hoben" for "Hörern" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hoben" is a verb and "Hörern" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "hoben" or "Hörern" show up more?
"hoben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,101 in our German list, against #43,982 for "Hörern". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hoben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hörern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #316,861 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hoben" and "Hörern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hölzern vs Hörern". 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 #316,861 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