schulvsSchülerWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#10,561
“schul” frequency rank
#910
“Schüler” frequency rank
11471
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature schul Schüler
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs schulen Person, die eine Schule besucht

Where the eye mixes schul and Schüler

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

5 ch
schul
7 ch
Schüler

Visual trap between schul and Schüler

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: schul is [ʃuːl] while Schüler is [ˈʃyːlɐ]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11471, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

schul is recorded at frequency rank #10,561, classified as averb, pronounced [ʃuːl]. Schüler is at rank #910, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃyːlɐ].

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 11471, this pair ranks #1,969,711 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of schul vs Schüler

Shared letters: chls. Private to "schul": u. Private to "Schüler": erü.

"schul" · 5 letters · shape CCCVC  ·  "Schüler" · 7 letters · shape CCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • schulcshul · scchul · schhul · schlu · schull · scuhl · shcul · sschul

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "schul" and "Schüler" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "schul" is a verb and "Schüler" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "schul" or "Schüler" show up more?
"Schüler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #910 in our German list, against #10,561 for "schul". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "schul" and "Schüler" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "schul" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Schüler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,969,711 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "schul" and "Schüler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "schul vs shut". 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 #1,969,711 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