Which to use
“drei” is a num and “dreist” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #175
- “drei” frequency rank
- #15,066
- “dreist” frequency rank
- 15241
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drei | dreist |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | die Kardinalzahl zwischen zwei und vier | ohne Respekt, ohne Zurückhaltung |
Where the eye mixes drei and dreist
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. drei runs 4 letters (CCVV) against dreist's 6 (CCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between drei and dreist
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: drei is [dʁaɪ̯] while dreist is [dʁaɪ̯st]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “drei” sits inside “dreist”, and the parts of speech differ too (num vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drei is recorded at frequency rank #175, classified as anum, pronounced [dʁaɪ̯]. dreist is at rank #15,066, tagged as anadj, pronounced [dʁaɪ̯st].
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 15241, this pair ranks #1,945,367 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of drei vs dreist
Shared letters: deir. Private to "drei": -. Private to "dreist": st.
"drei" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "dreist" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "drei" for "dreist" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "drei" or "dreist" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "drei" and "dreist" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "drei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dreist" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,945,367 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drei" and "dreist" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dreist vs dreister". 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 #1,945,367 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.