rühmenvsruhteTell them apart

Which to use

“rühmen” and “ruhte” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#49,214
“rühmen” frequency rank
#36,599
“ruhte” frequency rank
85813
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rühmen ruhte
Definition etwas oder jemanden mit positiven Worten hervorheben 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs ruhen

Where the eye mixes rühmen and ruhte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
rühmen
5 ch
ruhte

Look-alike desk: rühmen vs ruhte

A purely visual mix-up. rühmen ([ˈʁyːmən]) and ruhte ([ˈʁuːtə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rühmen is recorded at frequency rank #49,214, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁyːmən]. ruhte is at rank #36,599, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʁuːtə].

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 85813, this pair ranks #102,737 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rühmen vs ruhte

Shared letters: ehr. Private to "rühmen": mnü. Private to "ruhte": tu.

"rühmen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "ruhte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ruhterhute · rruhte · ruhet · ruhhte · ruhtte · ruthe · urhte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rühmen" and "ruhte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈʁyːmən] versus [ˈʁuːtə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rühmen" or "ruhte"?
"ruhte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,599 in our German list, against #49,214 for "rühmen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rühmen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ruhte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #102,737 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rühmen" and "ruhte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ramen vs rühmen". 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 #102,737 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