hobenvshütenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,101
“hoben” frequency rank
#16,182
“hüten” frequency rank
47283
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hoben hüten
Definition 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs heben aufpassen auf, wobei meist Tiere, aber auch Kinder gemeint sind

Where the eye mixes hoben and hüten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hoben and hüten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
hoben
5 ch
hüten

Look-alike desk: hoben vs hüten

A purely visual mix-up. hoben ([ˈhoːbn̩]) and hüten ([ˈhyːtn̩]) 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 47283, 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]. hüten is at rank #16,182, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhyːtn̩].

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 47283, this pair ranks #1,289,803 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hoben vs hüten

Shared letters: ehn. Private to "hoben": bo. Private to "hüten": tü.

"hoben" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hüten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hoben" and "hüten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhoːbn̩] versus [ˈhyːtn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "hoben" or "hüten" show up more?
"hüten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,182 in our German list, against #31,101 for "hoben". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "hoben" and "hüten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hoben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hüten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,289,803 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hoben" and "hüten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hoben 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 #1,289,803 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