hörenvsHörerWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#702
“hören” frequency rank
#11,260
“Hörer” frequency rank
11962
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hören Hörer
Definition mit den Ohren Person, die einem Radioprogramm oder sonstigen Sprechern zuhört

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hören and Hörer apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
hören
5 ch
Hörer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hören is [ˈhøːʁən] while Hörer is [ˈhøːʁɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “hören” becomes r in “Hörer”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11962, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hören is recorded at frequency rank #702, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhøːʁən]. Hörer is at rank #11,260, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhøːʁɐ].

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 11962, this pair ranks #1,966,963 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hören vs Hörer

Shared letters: ehrö. Private to "hören": n. Private to "Hörer": -.

"hören" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Hörer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hören" and "Hörer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hören" is a verb and "Hörer" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hören" or "Hörer"?
"hören" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #702 in our German list, against #11,260 for "Hörer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list