dievsdoiWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: die is a determiner, doi is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“die” is a determiner and “doi” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1
“die” frequency rank
#42,427
“doi” frequency rank
42428
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature die doi
Definition weiblicher bestimmter Artikel im Nominativ und Akkusativ Singular 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs doić

Where the eye mixes die and doi

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

3 ch
die
3 ch
doi

Look-alike desk: die vs doi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: die is [diː] while doi is [ˈdɔji]. 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 (determiner vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42428, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

die is recorded at frequency rank #1, classified as adet, pronounced [diː]. doi is at rank #42,427, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈdɔji].

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 42428, this pair ranks #1,449,585 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of die vs doi

Shared letters: di. Private to "die": e. Private to "doi": o.

"die" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "doi" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "die" and "doi" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "die" is a determiner and "doi" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "die" or "doi" show up more?
"die" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1 in our German list, against #42,427 for "doi". 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 "die" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "doi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,449,585 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "die" and "doi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "doi vs dörr". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,449,585 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