zugehörigvszugehörtWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: zugehörig is a adjective, zugehört is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“zugehörig” is an adjective and “zugehört” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,800
“zugehörig” frequency rank
#18,447
“zugehört” frequency rank
42247
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature zugehörig zugehört
Definition zu jemandem oder etwas gehörend Partizip Perfekt des Verbs zuhören

Where the eye mixes zugehörig and zugehört

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. zugehörig runs 9 letters (CVCVCVCVC) against zugehört's 8 (CVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
zugehörig
8 ch
zugehört

Why the eye confuses zugehörig with zugehört

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: zugehörig is [ˈt͡suːɡəˌhøːʁɪç] while zugehört is [ˈt͡suːɡəˌhøːɐ̯t]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42247, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

zugehörig is recorded at frequency rank #23,800, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈt͡suːɡəˌhøːʁɪç]. zugehört is at rank #18,447, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈt͡suːɡəˌhøːɐ̯t].

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 42247, this pair ranks #1,455,245 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of zugehörig vs zugehört

Shared letters: eghruzö. Private to "zugehörig": i. Private to "zugehört": t.

"zugehörig" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC  ·  "zugehört" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "zugehörig" for "zugehört" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "zugehörig" is an adjective and "zugehört" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "zugehörig" vs "zugehört" - which ranks higher?
"zugehört" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,447 in our German list, against #23,800 for "zugehörig". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "zugehörig" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "zugehört" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,455,245 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "zugehörig" and "zugehört" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "zugehörig vs zugehörige". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,455,245 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