HudsonvsHülsenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Hudson is a name, Hülsen is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Hudson” is a name and “Hülsen” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,179
“Hudson” frequency rank
#40,007
“Hülsen” frequency rank
56186
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hudson Hülsen
Definition Fluss in den US-Bundesstaaten New York und New Jersey im Nordosten der USA Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Hülse

Where the eye mixes Hudson and Hülsen

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

6 ch
Hudson
6 ch
Hülsen

Why the eye confuses Hudson with Hülsen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hudson is [ˈhat͡sn̩] while Hülsen is [ˈhʏlzn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56186, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hudson is recorded at frequency rank #16,179, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈhat͡sn̩]. Hülsen is at rank #40,007, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhʏlzn̩].

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 56186, this pair ranks #950,062 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hudson vs Hülsen

Shared letters: hns. Private to "Hudson": dou. Private to "Hülsen": elü.

"Hudson" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Hülsen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hudson ← hduson · hhudson · huddson · hudosn · hudsno · hudsonn · hudsson · husdon

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hudson" for "Hülsen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hudson" is a name and "Hülsen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Hudson" or "Hülsen" show up more?
"Hudson" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,179 in our German list, against #40,007 for "Hülsen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hudson" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hülsen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #950,062 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hudson" and "Hülsen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hissen vs Hülsen". 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 #950,062 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