diesvsdreiWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dies is a pronoun, drei is a num, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dies” is a pronoun and “drei” is a num - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#219
“dies” frequency rank
#175
“drei” frequency rank
394
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dies drei
Definition adverbialer Gebrauch, um ein ganz bestimmtes, nahe liegendes Nomen hervorzuheben die Kardinalzahl zwischen zwei und vier

Where the eye mixes dies and drei

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

4 ch
dies
4 ch
drei

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dies is [diːs] while drei is [dʁaɪ̯]. 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 num), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 394, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dies is recorded at frequency rank #219, classified as apron, pronounced [diːs]. drei is at rank #175, tagged as anum, pronounced [dʁaɪ̯].

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 394, this pair ranks #2,005,914 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dies vs drei

Shared letters: dei. Private to "dies": s. Private to "drei": r.

"dies" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "drei" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • diesddies · deis · diess · dise · ides
  • dreiddrei · deri · drie · drrei · rdei

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dies" and "drei" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dies" is a pronoun and "drei" a num, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dies" or "drei"?
"drei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #175 in our German list, against #219 for "dies". 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 "dies" and "drei". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "drei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,005,914 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dies" and "drei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dies vs dudes". 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