Which to use
“dran” is an adverb and “drug” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #964
- “dran” frequency rank
- #38,692
- “drug” frequency rank
- 39656
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dran | drug |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | eine direkte räumliche Berührung ausdrückend | Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs drag |
Where the eye mixes dran and drug
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dran and drug follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses dran with drug
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dran is [dʁan] while drug is [dɹʌɡ]. 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 (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39656, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dran is recorded at frequency rank #964, classified as anadv, pronounced [dʁan]. drug is at rank #38,692, tagged as averb, pronounced [dɹʌɡ].
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 39656, this pair ranks #1,530,588 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dran vs drug
Shared letters: dr. Private to "dran": an. Private to "drug": gu.
"dran" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "drug" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dran" and "drug" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "dran" or "drug" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drug" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,530,588 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dran" and "drug" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drug vs duc". 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 #1,530,588 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.