BürovsbuyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“Büro” and “buy” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,588
“Büro” frequency rank
#16,659
“buy” frequency rank
18247
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Büro buy
Definition Dienststelle oder Geschäftsräume, wo schriftliche oder verwaltende Arbeiten erledigt werden Handlung, mit der etwas gegen Hingabe von Geld erworben wird: Kauf

Where the eye mixes Büro and buy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. Büro runs 4 letters (CVCV) against buy's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Büro
3 ch
buy

Visual trap between Büro and buy

A purely visual mix-up. Büro ([byˈʁoː]) and buy ([baɪ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18247, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Büro is recorded at frequency rank #1,588, classified as anoun, pronounced [byˈʁoː]. buy is at rank #16,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced [baɪ].

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 18247, this pair ranks #1,920,054 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Büro vs buy

Shared letters: b. Private to "Büro": orü. Private to "buy": uy.

"Büro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "buy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Büro" and "buy" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([byˈʁoː] versus [baɪ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Büro" vs "buy" - which ranks higher?
"Büro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,588 in our German list, against #16,659 for "buy". 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 "Büro" and "buy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Büro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "buy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,920,054 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Büro" and "buy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bic vs buy". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,920,054 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