drohevsdrohenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“drohe” and “drohen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,050
“drohe” frequency rank
#6,409
“drohen” frequency rank
40459
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature drohe drohen
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs drohen jemanden durch die Ankündigung von Gewalt oder Sanktionen einschüchtern oder zwingen, etwas zu tun

Where the eye mixes drohe and drohen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. drohe runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against drohen's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
drohe
6 ch
drohen

Look-alike desk: drohe vs drohen

A purely visual mix-up. drohe ([ˈdʁoːə]) and drohen ([ˈdʁoːən]) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “drohe” sits inside “drohen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40459, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

drohe is recorded at frequency rank #34,050, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈdʁoːə]. drohen is at rank #6,409, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈdʁoːən].

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 40459, this pair ranks #1,507,877 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of drohe vs drohen

Shared letters: dehor. Private to "drohe": -. Private to "drohen": n.

"drohe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "drohen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • drohe ← ddrohe · dorhe · drhoe · droeh · drohhe · drrohe · rdohe
  • drohen ← ddrohen · dorhen · drhoen · droehn · drohenn · drohhen · drrohen · rdohen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "drohe" and "drohen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdʁoːə] versus [ˈdʁoːən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "drohe" or "drohen"?
"drohen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,409 in our German list, against #34,050 for "drohe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "drohe" and "drohen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "drohe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "drohen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,507,877 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "drohe" and "drohen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drohe vs dröhnt". 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 #1,507,877 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list