davorvsdavyWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,762
“davor” frequency rank
#45,844
“davy” frequency rank
47606
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature davor davy
Definition Adverbiale Bestimmung des Ortes: räumlich vor etwas anderem gelegen Nominativ Plural des Substantivs dav

Where the eye mixes davor and davy

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

5 ch
davor
4 ch
davy

Visual trap between davor and davy

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: davor is [daˈfoːɐ̯] while davy is [ˈdavɪ]. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47606, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

davor is recorded at frequency rank #1,762, classified as anadv, pronounced [daˈfoːɐ̯]. 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 47606, this pair ranks #1,278,471 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of davor vs davy

Shared letters: adv. Private to "davor": or. Private to "davy": y.

"davor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "davy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • davoradvor · daovr · davorr · davro · davvor · ddavor · dvaor
  • davyadvy · davvy · davyy · dayv · ddavy · dvay

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "davor" and "davy" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "davor" is an adverb and "davy" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "davor" vs "davy" - which ranks higher?
"davor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,762 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "davor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "davy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,278,471 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "davor" and "davy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Darcy vs davy". 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 #1,278,471 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