hustenvshütenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,111
“husten” frequency rank
#16,182
“hüten” frequency rank
26293
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature husten hüten
Definition heftig Luft aus der Lunge ausstoßen aufpassen auf, wobei meist Tiere, aber auch Kinder gemeint sind

Where the eye mixes husten and hüten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
husten
5 ch
hüten

Why the eye confuses husten with hüten

A purely visual mix-up. husten ([ˈhuːstn̩]) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26293, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

husten is recorded at frequency rank #10,111, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhuːstn̩]. 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 26293, this pair ranks #1,820,315 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of husten vs hüten

Shared letters: ehnt. Private to "husten": su. Private to "hüten": ü.

"husten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "hüten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hustenhhusten · hsuten · husetn · hussten · hustenn · hustne · hustten · hutsen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "husten" and "hüten" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhuːstn̩] versus [ˈhyːtn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "husten" or "hüten" show up more?
"husten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,111 in our German list, against #16,182 for "hüten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "husten" 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 #1,820,315 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "husten" 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 #1,820,315 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