doofenvsDrogenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: doofen is a adjective, Drogen is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“doofen” is an adjective and “Drogen” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,534
“doofen” frequency rank
#2,333
“Drogen” frequency rank
35867
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doofen Drogen
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs doof Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Droge

Where the eye mixes doofen and Drogen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. doofen (CVVCVC) and Drogen (CCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
doofen
6 ch
Drogen

Visual trap between doofen and Drogen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: doofen is [ˈdoːfn̩] while Drogen is [ˈdʁoːɡn̩]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35867, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

doofen is recorded at frequency rank #33,534, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈdoːfn̩]. Drogen is at rank #2,333, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdʁoːɡn̩].

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 35867, this pair ranks #1,629,603 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of doofen vs Drogen

Shared letters: deno. Private to "doofen": f. Private to "Drogen": gr.

"doofen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "Drogen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doofen ← ddoofen · dofen · dofoen · dooefn · doofenn · dooffen · doofne · odofen
  • Drogen ← ddrogen · dorgen · drgoen · droegn · drogenn · droggen · drogne · drrogen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "doofen" and "Drogen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "doofen" is an adjective and "Drogen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "doofen" or "Drogen"?
"Drogen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,333 in our German list, against #33,534 for "doofen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "doofen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Drogen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,629,603 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "doofen" and "Drogen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "doofen vs Dorfen". 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 #1,629,603 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