draftvsdrehtTell them apart

Which to use

“draft” and “dreht” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#36,264
“draft” frequency rank
#2,951
“dreht” frequency rank
39215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature draft dreht
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs draften 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs drehen

Where the eye mixes draft and dreht

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

5 ch
draft
5 ch
dreht

Look-alike desk: draft vs dreht

A purely visual mix-up. draft ([dʁaːft]) and dreht ([dʁeːt]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

draft is recorded at frequency rank #36,264, classified as averb, pronounced [dʁaːft]. dreht is at rank #2,951, tagged as averb, pronounced [dʁeːt].

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 39215, this pair ranks #1,542,882 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of draft vs dreht

Shared letters: drt. Private to "draft": af. Private to "dreht": eh.

"draft" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "dreht" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • draftdarft · ddraft · drafft · draftt · dratf · drfat · drraft · rdaft
  • drehtddreht · derht · drehht · drehtt · dreth · drhet · drreht · rdeht

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "draft" for "dreht" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([dʁaːft] versus [dʁeːt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "draft" or "dreht" show up more?
"dreht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,951 in our German list, against #36,264 for "draft". 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 "draft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dreht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,542,882 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "draft" and "dreht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "draft vs draw". 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 #1,542,882 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