dansvsdrausWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dans is a preposition, draus is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dans” is a preposition and “draus” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,326
“dans” frequency rank
#9,172
“draus” frequency rank
24498
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dans draus
Definition in, nach, pro, zu, bei auf eine direkte räumliche oder ursächliche Herkunft weisend

Where the eye mixes dans and draus

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

4 ch
dans
5 ch
draus

Look-alike desk: dans vs draus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dans is [dɑ̃] while draus is [dʁaʊ̯s]. 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 (preposition vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24498, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dans is recorded at frequency rank #15,326, classified as aprep, pronounced [dɑ̃]. draus is at rank #9,172, tagged as anadv, pronounced [dʁaʊ̯s].

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 24498, this pair ranks #1,846,745 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dans vs draus

Shared letters: ads. Private to "dans": n. Private to "draus": ru.

"dans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "draus" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dansadns · danns · danss · dasn · ddans · dnas
  • drausdarus · ddraus · drasu · drauss · drraus · druas · rdaus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dans" and "draus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dans" is a preposition and "draus" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dans" or "draus"?
"draus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,172 in our German list, against #15,326 for "dans". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "draus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,846,745 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dans" and "draus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dans vs dess". 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 #1,846,745 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