RosevsröstenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#3,617
“Rose” frequency rank
#45,557
“rösten” frequency rank
49174
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Rose rösten
Definition stacheliger Zierstrauch aus der Familie der Rosengewächse Flachs oder Hanf zum Gewinnen von Pflanzenfasern mürbe machen

Where the eye mixes Rose and rösten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Rose runs 4 letters (CVCV) against rösten's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Rose
6 ch
rösten

Look-alike desk: Rose vs rösten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Rose is [ˈʁoːzə] while rösten is [ˈʁœstn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 49174, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Rose is recorded at frequency rank #3,617, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁoːzə]. rösten is at rank #45,557, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʁœstn̩].

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 49174, this pair ranks #1,221,387 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Rose vs rösten

Shared letters: ers. Private to "Rose": o. Private to "rösten": ntö.

"Rose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "rösten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Rose ← orse · roes · rosse · rrose · rsoe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Rose" and "rösten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Rose" is a noun and "rösten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Rose" or "rösten" show up more?
"Rose" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,617 in our German list, against #45,557 for "rösten". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Rose" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rösten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,221,387 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Rose" and "rösten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rollten vs rösten". 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 #1,221,387 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