rotenvsRotheWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: roten is a adjective, Rothe is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“roten” is an adjective and “Rothe” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,677
“roten” frequency rank
#30,265
“Rothe” frequency rank
31942
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature roten Rothe
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs rot Ortsteil der Stadt Beverungen, bis 1969 selbstständige Gemeinde

Where the eye mixes roten and Rothe

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

5 ch
roten
5 ch
Rothe

Why the eye confuses roten with Rothe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: roten is [ˈʁoːtn̩] while Rothe is [ˈʁoːtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31942, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

roten is recorded at frequency rank #1,677, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁoːtn̩]. Rothe is at rank #30,265, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈʁoːtə].

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 31942, this pair ranks #1,717,961 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of roten vs Rothe

Shared letters: eort. Private to "roten": n. Private to "Rothe": h.

"roten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Rothe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rotenroetn · rotenn · rotne · rroten · rtoen
  • Rotheorthe · rohte · roteh · rothhe · rotthe · rrothe · rtohe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "roten" and "Rothe" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "roten" is an adjective and "Rothe" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "roten" vs "Rothe" - which ranks higher?
"roten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,677 in our German list, against #30,265 for "Rothe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "roten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Rothe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,717,961 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "roten" and "Rothe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rothe vs Rotor". 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 #1,717,961 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