draftvsdürftWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,264
“draft” frequency rank
#10,457
“dürft” frequency rank
46721
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature draft dürft
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs draften 2. Person Plural Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs dürfen

Where the eye mixes draft and dürft

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
draft
5 ch
dürft

Why the eye confuses draft with dürft

A purely visual mix-up. draft ([dʁaːft]) and dürft ([dʏʁft]) 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 46721, 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]. dürft is at rank #10,457, tagged as averb, pronounced [dʏʁft].

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 46721, this pair ranks #1,309,266 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of draft vs dürft

Shared letters: dfrt. Private to "draft": a. Private to "dürft": ü.

"draft" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "dürft" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • draftdarft · ddraft · drafft · draftt · dratf · drfat · drraft · rdaft

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "draft" for "dürft" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([dʁaːft] versus [dʏʁft]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "draft" or "dürft"?
"dürft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,457 in our German list, against #36,264 for "draft". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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 "dürft" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,309,266 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "draft" and "dürft" 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 #1,309,266 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