dichvsdurchWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#124
“dich” frequency rank
#67
“durch” frequency rank
191
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dich durch
Definition Akkusativ der zweiten Person Singular in etwas hinein und auf der anderen Seite wieder heraus (wobei oft der Teil dazwischen das Wichtige ist)

Where the eye mixes dich and durch

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

4 ch
dich
5 ch
durch

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dich is [dɪç] while durch is [dʊʁç]. 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 (pronoun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 191, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dich is recorded at frequency rank #124, classified as apron, pronounced [dɪç]. durch is at rank #67, tagged as aprep, pronounced [dʊʁç].

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 191, this pair ranks #2,006,171 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dich vs durch

Shared letters: cdh. Private to "dich": i. Private to "durch": ru.

"dich" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "durch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dichdcih · ddich · dicch · dichh · dihc · idch
  • durchddurch · druch · ducrh · durcch · durchh · durhc · durrch · udrch

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dich" and "durch" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dich" is a pronoun and "durch" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dich" or "durch"?
"durch" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #67 in our German list, against #124 for "dich". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "dich" and "durch". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "durch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,006,171 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dich" and "durch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dich vs dusch". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list