dranvsdrängtWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dran is a adverb, drängt is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dran” is an adverb and “drängt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#964
“dran” frequency rank
#8,543
“drängt” frequency rank
9507
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dran drängt
Definition eine direkte räumliche Berührung ausdrückend 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs drängen

Where the eye mixes dran and drängt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dran runs 4 letters (CCVC) against drängt's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
dran
6 ch
drängt

Visual trap between dran and drängt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dran is [dʁan] while drängt is [dʁɛŋt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dran is recorded at frequency rank #964, classified as anadv, pronounced [dʁan]. drängt is at rank #8,543, tagged as averb, pronounced [dʁɛŋt].

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 9507, this pair ranks #1,979,620 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dran vs drängt

Shared letters: dnr. Private to "dran": a. Private to "drängt": gtä.

"dran" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "drängt" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dran ← darn · ddran · drann · drna · drran · rdan

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dran" and "drängt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dran" is an adverb and "drängt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dran" or "drängt"?
"dran" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #964 in our German list, against #8,543 for "drängt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "dran" and "drängt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "drängt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,979,620 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dran" and "drängt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dran vs duran". 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 #1,979,620 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