Which to use
“drehten” and “drohten” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,260
- “drehten” frequency rank
- #25,966
- “drohten” frequency rank
- 43226
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drehten | drohten |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs drehen | 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs drohen |
Where the eye mixes drehten and drohten
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. drehten and drohten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between drehten and drohten
A purely visual mix-up. drehten ([ˈdʁeːtn̩]) and drohten ([ˈdʁoːtn̩]) 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 “drehten” becomes o in “drohten”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43226, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drehten is recorded at frequency rank #17,260, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈdʁeːtn̩]. drohten is at rank #25,966, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈdʁoːtn̩].
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 43226, this pair ranks #1,424,780 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of drehten vs drohten
Shared letters: dehnrt. Private to "drehten": -. Private to "drohten": o.
"drehten" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "drohten" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "drehten" and "drohten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "drehten" or "drohten" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "drehten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drohten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,424,780 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drehten" and "drohten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drohe vs drohten". 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 #1,424,780 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.