rotenvsRoutenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,677
“roten” frequency rank
#15,196
“Routen” frequency rank
16873
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature roten Routen
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs rot Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Route

Where the eye mixes roten and Routen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
roten
6 ch
Routen

Visual trap between roten and Routen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: roten is [ˈʁoːtn̩] while Routen is [ˈʁuːtn̩]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16873, 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]. Routen is at rank #15,196, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁuːtn̩].

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 16873, this pair ranks #1,932,297 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of roten vs Routen

Shared letters: enort. Private to "roten": -. Private to "Routen": u.

"roten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Routen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rotenroetn · rotenn · rotne · rroten · rtoen
  • Routenoruten · rotuen · rouetn · routenn · routne · routten · rrouten · ruoten

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "roten" and "Routen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "roten" is an adjective and "Routen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "roten" or "Routen" show up more?
"roten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,677 in our German list, against #15,196 for "Routen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "Routen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,932,297 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "roten" and "Routen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "raunen vs Routen". 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 #1,932,297 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