hotelvshütenConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#1,060
“hotel” frequency rank
#16,182
“hüten” frequency rank
17242
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hotel hüten
Definition Hotel aufpassen auf, wobei meist Tiere, aber auch Kinder gemeint sind

Where the eye mixes hotel and hüten

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

Visual trap between hotel and hüten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hotel is [ɦuˈtɛɫ] 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17242, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hotel is recorded at frequency rank #1,060, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɦuˈtɛɫ]. 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 17242, this pair ranks #1,929,118 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hotel vs hüten

Shared letters: eht. Private to "hotel": lo. Private to "hüten": nü.

"hotel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hüten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hotel ← hhotel · hoetl · hotell · hotle · hottel · htoel · ohtel

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hotel" and "hüten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hotel" is a noun and "hüten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hotel" or "hüten"?
"hotel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,060 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 "hotel" 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 #1,929,118 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hotel" 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 #1,929,118 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