kürtenvskurzemWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: kürten is a verb, kurzem is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“kürten” is a verb and “kurzem” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,491
“kürten” frequency rank
#2,733
“kurzem” frequency rank
42224
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kürten kurzem
Definition 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs küren Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs kurz

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set kürten and kurzem apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
kürten
6 ch
kurzem

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: kürten is [ˈkyːɐ̯tn̩] while kurzem is [ˈkʊʁt͡sm̩]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42224, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kürten is recorded at frequency rank #39,491, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkyːɐ̯tn̩]. kurzem is at rank #2,733, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈkʊʁt͡sm̩].

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 42224, this pair ranks #1,455,915 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kürten vs kurzem

Shared letters: ekr. Private to "kürten": ntü. Private to "kurzem": muz.

"kürten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "kurzem" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kurzemkkurzem · kruzem · kurezm · kurrzem · kurzemm · kurzme · kurzzem · kuzrem

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "kürten" and "kurzem" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kürten" is a verb and "kurzem" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "kürten" or "kurzem"?
"kurzem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,733 in our German list, against #39,491 for "kürten". 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