hoffen
[ˈhɔfn̩]
The verdict
“hoffen” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #1,811 in German word frequency and used as a verb.
- #1,811
- frequency rank, German
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - zuversichtlich erwarten, in die Zukunft vertrauen
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 | hoffen |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [ˈhɔfn̩] |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,811 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hoffen” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for hoffen is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈhɔfn̩]. Corpus data places it at rank #1,811 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "zuversichtlich erwarten, in die Zukunft vertrauen".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for hoffen, with forms such as "hfofen", "hhoffen", and "hofefn". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "hören", "hohen", "holen", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is hoffen, spelled H-O-F-F-E-N.
Definition
- 1zuversichtlich erwarten, in die Zukunft vertrauen
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hfofen,hhoffen,hofefn,hofen,hoffenn,hoffne,ohffen
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hoffen - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "hoffen"?
What does "hoffen" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “hoffen”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is H-O-F-F-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈhɔfn̩] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “hören” - see the side-by-side comparison. hoffen vs hören
- 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.