OsternvsoutenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#6,225
“Ostern” frequency rank
#35,369
“outen” frequency rank
41594
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ostern outen
Definition Fest der Auferstehung Jesu Christi, beginnend zum Sonntag nach dem ersten Frühlingsvollmond etwas bis dahin Verheimlichtes über sich bekennen, bekannt machen

Where the eye mixes Ostern and outen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Ostern runs 6 letters (VCCVCC) against outen's 5 (VVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Ostern
5 ch
outen

Look-alike desk: Ostern vs outen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ostern is [ˈoːstɐn] while outen is [ˈaʊ̯tn̩]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41594, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ostern is recorded at frequency rank #6,225, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈoːstɐn]. outen is at rank #35,369, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯tn̩].

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 41594, this pair ranks #1,474,786 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ostern vs outen

Shared letters: enot. Private to "Ostern": rs. Private to "outen": u.

"Ostern" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC  ·  "outen" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ostern ← osetrn · osstern · ostenr · osternn · osterrn · ostren · osttern · otsern
  • outen ← otuen · ouetn · outenn · outne · outten · uoten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Ostern" for "outen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ostern" is a noun and "outen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Ostern" vs "outen" - which ranks higher?
"Ostern" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,225 in our German list, against #35,369 for "outen". 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 "Ostern" and "outen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ostern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "outen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,474,786 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ostern" and "outen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Oasen vs outen". 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 #1,474,786 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