JongvsJungeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Jong is a intj, Junge is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Jong” is an intj and “Junge” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,868
“Jong” frequency rank
#419
“Junge” frequency rank
14287
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Jong Junge
Definition Anrede und Ausruf im Sinne von „Mensch!, Junge!, Hör mal zu!“ männliches Kind

Where the eye mixes Jong and Junge

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Jong
5 ch
Junge

Look-alike desk: Jong vs Junge

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Jong is [jɔŋ] while Junge is [ˈjʊŋə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14287, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Jong is recorded at frequency rank #13,868, classified as anintj, pronounced [jɔŋ]. Junge is at rank #419, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈjʊŋə].

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 14287, this pair ranks #1,952,276 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Jong vs Junge

Shared letters: gjn. Private to "Jong": o. Private to "Junge": eu.

"Jong" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Junge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Jongjjong · jnog · jogn · jongg · jonng · ojng
  • Jungejjunge · jnuge · jugne · juneg · jungge · junnge · ujnge

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Jong" for "Junge" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Jong" is an intj and "Junge" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Jong" or "Junge" show up more?
"Junge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #419 in our German list, against #13,868 for "Jong". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Jong" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Junge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,952,276 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Jong" and "Junge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jn vs Jong". 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 #1,952,276 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