brachvsbrickConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#4,184
“brach” frequency rank
#40,448
“brick” frequency rank
44632
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brach brick
Definition (in Bezug auf Bodenflächen) ungenutzt, leer der Ziegelstein

Where the eye mixes brach and brick

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
brach
5 ch
brick

Why the eye confuses brach with brick

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: brach is [bʁaːx] while brick is [bɹɪk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44632, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brach is recorded at frequency rank #4,184, classified as anadj, pronounced [bʁaːx]. brick is at rank #40,448, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bɹɪk].

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 44632, this pair ranks #1,379,873 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of brach vs brick

Shared letters: bcr. Private to "brach": ah. Private to "brick": ik.

"brach" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "brick" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brachbarch · bbrach · bracch · brachh · brahc · brcah · brrach · rbach
  • brickbbrick · birck · brcik · bricck · brickk · brikc · brrick · rbick

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "brach" for "brick" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "brach" is an adjective and "brick" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "brach" or "brick"?
"brach" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,184 in our German list, against #40,448 for "brick". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "brach" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brick" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,379,873 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brach" and "brick" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bic vs brick". 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 #1,379,873 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