Bernhard
[ˈbɛʁnhaʁt]
The verdict
“Bernhard” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #3,506 in German word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #3,506
- frequency rank, German
- 8
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - männlicher Vorname
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Bernhard |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | [ˈbɛʁnhaʁt] |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #3,506 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Bernhard” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for Bernhard is 8 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈbɛʁnhaʁt]. Corpus data places it at rank #3,506 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "männlicher Vorname".
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for Bernhard, with forms such as "bbernhard", "benrhard", and "berhnard". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "Bernhardt", "bernard", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct German form is Bernhard, spelled B-E-R-N-H-A-R-D.
Definition
- 1männlicher Vorname
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbernhard,benrhard,berhnard,bernahrd,bernhadr,bernhardd,bernharrd,bernhhard,bernhrad,bernnhard,berrnhard,brenhard,ebrnhard
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Bernhard - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "Bernhard"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “Bernhard”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is B-E-R-N-H-A-R-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈbɛʁnhaʁt] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Bernhardt” - see the side-by-side comparison. Bernhard vs Bernhardt
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.