drehstvsdrehteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#38,688
“drehst” frequency rank
#5,351
“drehte” frequency rank
44039
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature drehst drehte
Definition 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs drehen 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs drehen

Where the eye mixes drehst and drehte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. drehst (CCVCCC) and drehte (CCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
drehst
6 ch
drehte

Why the eye confuses drehst with drehte

A purely visual mix-up. drehst ([dʁeːst]) and drehte ([ˈdʁeːtə]) 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 44039, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

drehst is recorded at frequency rank #38,688, classified as averb, pronounced [dʁeːst]. drehte is at rank #5,351, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈdʁeːtə].

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 44039, this pair ranks #1,398,992 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of drehst vs drehte

Shared letters: dehrt. Private to "drehst": s. Private to "drehte": -.

"drehst" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "drehte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • drehst ← ddrehst · derhst · drehhst · drehsst · drehstt · drehts · dresht · drhest
  • drehte ← ddrehte · derhte · drehet · drehhte · drehtte · drethe · drhete · drrehte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "drehst" and "drehte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([dʁeːst] versus [ˈdʁeːtə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "drehst" or "drehte" show up more?
"drehte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,351 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "drehst" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "drehte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,398,992 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "drehst" and "drehte" 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 #1,398,992 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