Which to use
“drei” and “dreier” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #175
- “drei” frequency rank
- #5,820
- “dreier” frequency rank
- 5995
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drei | dreier |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | die Kardinalzahl zwischen zwei und vier | Genitiv Plural der Flexion ohne bestimmten Artikel der Kardinalzahl drei |
Where the eye mixes drei and dreier
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. drei ([dʁaɪ̯]) and dreier ([ˈdʁaɪ̯ɐ]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “drei” sits inside “dreier”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5995, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drei is recorded at frequency rank #175, classified as anum, pronounced [dʁaɪ̯]. dreier is at rank #5,820, tagged as anum, pronounced [ˈdʁaɪ̯ɐ].
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 5995, this pair ranks #1,993,055 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of drei vs dreier
Shared letters: deir. Private to "drei": -. Private to "dreier": -.
"drei" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "dreier" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC