Which to use
“darf” is a verb and “dato” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #293
- “darf” frequency rank
- #10,631
- “dato” frequency rank
- 10924
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | darf | dato |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs dürfen | am heutigen Tag |
Where the eye mixes darf and dato
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. darf (CVCC) and dato (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses darf with dato
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: darf is [daʁf] while dato is [ˈdaːto]. 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 (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10924, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
darf is recorded at frequency rank #293, classified as averb, pronounced [daʁf]. dato is at rank #10,631, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈdaːto].
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 10924, this pair ranks #1,972,614 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of darf vs dato
Shared letters: ad. Private to "darf": fr. Private to "dato": ot.
"darf" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dato" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "darf" for "dato" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "darf" or "dato" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "darf" and "dato" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "darf" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dato" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,972,614 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "darf" and "dato" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dato vs Doro". 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 #1,972,614 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.