DrahtvsdrehstTell them apart

Quick tell: Draht is a noun, drehst is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Draht” is a noun and “drehst” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,452
“Draht” frequency rank
#38,688
“drehst” frequency rank
49140
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Draht drehst
Definition dünnes biegsames Metallstück mit in der Regel rundem Profil 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs drehen

Where the eye mixes Draht and drehst

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Draht runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against drehst's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Draht
6 ch
drehst

Look-alike desk: Draht vs drehst

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Draht is [dʁaːt] while drehst is [dʁeːst]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Draht is recorded at frequency rank #10,452, classified as anoun, pronounced [dʁaːt]. drehst is at rank #38,688, tagged as averb, pronounced [dʁeːst].

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 49140, this pair ranks #1,222,618 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Draht vs drehst

Shared letters: dhrt. Private to "Draht": a. Private to "drehst": es.

"Draht" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "drehst" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Draht ← darht · ddraht · drahht · drahtt · drath · drhat · drraht · rdaht
  • drehst ← ddrehst · derhst · drehhst · drehsst · drehstt · drehts · dresht · drhest

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Draht" and "drehst" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Draht" is a noun and "drehst" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Draht" vs "drehst" - which ranks higher?
"Draht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,452 in our German list, against #38,688 for "drehst". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "Draht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "drehst" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,222,618 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Draht" and "drehst" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drehst vs dröhnt". 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 #1,222,618 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