blauvsbraWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: blau is a adjective, bra is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“blau” is an adjective and “bra” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,871
“blau” frequency rank
#38,655
“bra” frequency rank
40526
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blau bra
Definition eine bunte Farbe, im Spektrum eine relativ kurzwellige Farbe zwischen grün und violett; Grundfarbe vieler Farbmodelle, insbesondere eine der drei Grundfarben des digitalen RGB-Farbraums paariger Körperteil zwischen Rumpf und Hand; Arm

Where the eye mixes blau and bra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
blau
3 ch
bra

Visual trap between blau and bra

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: blau is [blaʊ̯] while bra is [bɣa]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40526, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blau is recorded at frequency rank #1,871, classified as anadj, pronounced [blaʊ̯]. bra is at rank #38,655, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bɣa].

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 40526, this pair ranks #1,505,915 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of blau vs bra

Shared letters: ab. Private to "blau": lu. Private to "bra": r.

"blau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "bra" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blaubalu · bblau · bllau · blua · lbau

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blau" for "bra" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "blau" is an adjective and "bra" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "blau" or "bra"?
"blau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,871 in our German list, against #38,655 for "bra". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "blau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,505,915 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blau" and "bra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bic vs bra". 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 #1,505,915 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