Which to use
“dritte” is a num and “Drittel” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,155
- “dritte” frequency rank
- #2,952
- “Drittel” frequency rank
- 4107
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dritte | Drittel |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nach dem oder der zweiten kommend | einer von drei gleich großen Teilen |
Where the eye mixes dritte and Drittel
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. dritte runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against Drittel's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between dritte and Drittel
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dritte is [ˈdʁɪtə] while Drittel is [ˈdʁɪtl̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “dritte” sits inside “Drittel”, and the parts of speech differ too (num vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4107, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dritte is recorded at frequency rank #1,155, classified as anum, pronounced [ˈdʁɪtə]. Drittel is at rank #2,952, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdʁɪtl̩].
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 4107, this pair ranks #1,998,568 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dritte vs Drittel
Shared letters: deirt. Private to "dritte": -. Private to "Drittel": l.
"dritte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "Drittel" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dritte" and "Drittel" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "dritte" or "Drittel" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "dritte" and "Drittel" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dritte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Drittel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,998,568 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dritte" and "Drittel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Drift vs dritte". 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 #1,998,568 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.