DrohnevsdrohtenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Drohne is a noun, drohten is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Drohne” is a noun and “drohten” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,125
“Drohne” frequency rank
#25,966
“drohten” frequency rank
39091
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Drohne drohten
Definition männliche Biene 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs drohen

Where the eye mixes Drohne and drohten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Drohne
7 ch
drohten

Look-alike desk: Drohne vs drohten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Drohne is [ˈdʁoːnə] while drohten is [ˈdʁoːtn̩]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39091, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Drohne is recorded at frequency rank #13,125, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdʁoːnə]. drohten is at rank #25,966, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈdʁoːtn̩].

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 39091, this pair ranks #1,546,331 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Drohne vs drohten

Shared letters: dehnor. Private to "Drohne": -. Private to "drohten": t.

"Drohne" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "drohten" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Drohneddrohne · dorhne · drhone · drohhne · dronhe · drrohne · rdohne
  • drohtenddrohten · dorhten · drhoten · drohetn · drohhten · drohtenn · drohtne · drohtten

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Drohne" and "drohten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Drohne" is a noun and "drohten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Drohne" or "drohten"?
"Drohne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,125 in our German list, against #25,966 for "drohten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Drohne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "drohten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,546,331 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Drohne" and "drohten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drohe vs drohten". 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 #1,546,331 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