dreivsdryWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: drei is a num, dry is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“drei” is a num and “dry” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#175
“drei” frequency rank
#29,545
“dry” frequency rank
29720
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature drei dry
Definition die Kardinalzahl zwischen zwei und vier trocken

Where the eye mixes drei and dry

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
drei
3 ch
dry

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: drei is [dʁaɪ̯] while dry is [dɹaɪ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (num vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29720, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

drei is recorded at frequency rank #175, classified as anum, pronounced [dʁaɪ̯]. dry is at rank #29,545, tagged as anadj, pronounced [dɹaɪ].

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 29720, this pair ranks #1,761,510 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of drei vs dry

Shared letters: dr. Private to "drei": ei. Private to "dry": y.

"drei" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "dry" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dreiddrei · deri · drie · drrei · rdei

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "drei" and "dry" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "drei" is a num and "dry" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "drei" or "dry"?
"drei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #175 in our German list, against #29,545 for "dry". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list