dichvsDiebTell them apart

Quick tell: dich is a pronoun, Dieb is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dich” is a pronoun and “Dieb” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#124
“dich” frequency rank
#9,700
“Dieb” frequency rank
9824
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dich Dieb
Definition Akkusativ der zweiten Person Singular jemand, der stiehlt, der eines anderen Eigentum wegnimmt

Where the eye mixes dich and Dieb

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

4 ch
dich
4 ch
Dieb

Look-alike desk: dich vs Dieb

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dich is [dɪç] while Dieb is [diːp]. 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 (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9824, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dich is recorded at frequency rank #124, classified as apron, pronounced [dɪç]. Dieb is at rank #9,700, tagged as anoun, pronounced [diːp].

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 9824, this pair ranks #1,978,128 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dich vs Dieb

Shared letters: di. Private to "dich": ch. Private to "Dieb": be.

"dich" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Dieb" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dichdcih · ddich · dicch · dichh · dihc · idch
  • Diebddieb · deib · dibe · diebb · ideb

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dich" and "Dieb" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dich" is a pronoun and "Dieb" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "dich" or "Dieb" show up more?
"dich" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #124 in our German list, against #9,700 for "Dieb". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dieb" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,978,128 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dich" and "Dieb" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dieb vs diet". 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 #1,978,128 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