drehevsdroheWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#15,334
“drehe” frequency rank
#34,050
“drohe” frequency rank
49384
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature drehe drohe
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs drehen 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs drohen

Where the eye mixes drehe and drohe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. drehe and drohe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
drehe
5 ch
drohe

Look-alike desk: drehe vs drohe

A purely visual mix-up. drehe ([ˈdʁeːə]) and drohe ([ˈdʁoːə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - e in “drehe” becomes o in “drohe”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

drehe is recorded at frequency rank #15,334, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈdʁeːə]. drohe is at rank #34,050, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈdʁoːə].

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 49384, this pair ranks #1,213,537 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of drehe vs drohe

Shared letters: dehr. Private to "drehe": -. Private to "drohe": o.

"drehe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "drohe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • drehe ← ddrehe · derhe · dreeh · drehhe · drhee · drrehe · rdehe
  • drohe ← ddrohe · dorhe · drhoe · droeh · drohhe · drrohe · rdohe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "drehe" and "drohe" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdʁeːə] versus [ˈdʁoːə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "drehe" vs "drohe" - which ranks higher?
"drehe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,334 in our German list, against #34,050 for "drohe". 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 "drehe" and "drohe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "drehe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "drohe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,213,537 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "drehe" and "drohe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drohe 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 #1,213,537 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