darfvsdavyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: darf is a verb, davy is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“darf” is a verb and “davy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#293
“darf” frequency rank
#45,844
“davy” frequency rank
46137
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature darf davy
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs dürfen Nominativ Plural des Substantivs dav

Where the eye mixes darf and davy

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

4 ch
darf
4 ch
davy

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: darf is [daʁf] while davy is [ˈdavɪ]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46137, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

darf is recorded at frequency rank #293, classified as averb, pronounced [daʁf]. davy is at rank #45,844, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdavɪ].

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 46137, this pair ranks #1,329,382 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of darf vs davy

Shared letters: ad. Private to "darf": fr. Private to "davy": vy.

"darf" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "davy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • darfadrf · dafr · darff · darrf · ddarf · draf
  • davyadvy · davvy · davyy · dayv · ddavy · dvay

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "darf" and "davy" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "darf" is a verb and "davy" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "darf" or "davy"?
"darf" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #293 in our German list, against #45,844 for "davy". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list