hohenvshütenTell them apart

Quick tell: hohen is a adjective, hüten is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hohen” is an adjective and “hüten” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#858
“hohen” frequency rank
#16,182
“hüten” frequency rank
17040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hohen hüten
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs hoch aufpassen auf, wobei meist Tiere, aber auch Kinder gemeint sind

Where the eye mixes hohen and hüten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hohen 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
hohen
5 ch
hüten

Why the eye confuses hohen with hüten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hohen is [ˈhoːən] while hüten is [ˈhyːtn̩]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17040, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hohen is recorded at frequency rank #858, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈhoːən]. 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 17040, this pair ranks #1,930,871 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hohen vs hüten

Shared letters: ehn. Private to "hohen": o. Private to "hüten": tü.

"hohen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hüten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hohen ← hhoen · hhohen · hoehn · hohenn · hohhen · hohne · ohhen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hohen" and "hüten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hohen" is an adjective and "hüten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hohen" vs "hüten" - which ranks higher?
"hohen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #858 in our German list, against #16,182 for "hüten". 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 "hohen" 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 #1,930,871 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hohen" and "hüten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Häuten vs hüten". 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 #1,930,871 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