drinnevsdritteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: drinne is a adverb, dritte is a num, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“drinne” is an adverb and “dritte” is a num - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,538
“drinne” frequency rank
#1,155
“dritte” frequency rank
34693
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature drinne dritte
Definition im Inneren nach dem oder der zweiten kommend

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set drinne and dritte apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
drinne
6 ch
dritte

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: drinne is [ˈdʁɪnə] while dritte is [ˈdʁɪtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs num), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34693, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

drinne is recorded at frequency rank #33,538, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈdʁɪnə]. dritte is at rank #1,155, tagged as anum, pronounced [ˈdʁɪtə].

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 34693, this pair ranks #1,657,527 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of drinne vs dritte

Shared letters: deir. Private to "drinne": n. Private to "dritte": t.

"drinne" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "dritte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • drinneddrinne · dirnne · drine · drnine · drrinne · rdinne
  • dritteddritte · dirtte · drite · dritet · drritte · drtite · rditte

Frequency comparison

drinne#33,538
dritte#1,155

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "drinne" and "dritte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "drinne" is an adverb and "dritte" a num, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "drinne" or "dritte"?
"dritte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,155 in our German list, against #33,538 for "drinne". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering drinne vs dritte

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adverb, it's “drinne”; for a num, it's “dritte”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “drinne” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list