drohtvsdrohteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,306
“droht” frequency rank
#9,352
“drohte” frequency rank
12658
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature droht drohte
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs drohen 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs drohen

Where the eye mixes droht and drohte

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

5 ch
droht
6 ch
drohte

Visual trap between droht and drohte

A purely visual mix-up. droht ([dʁoːt]) and drohte ([ˈdʁoːtə]) 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) - “droht” sits inside “drohte”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12658, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

droht is recorded at frequency rank #3,306, classified as averb, pronounced [dʁoːt]. drohte is at rank #9,352, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈdʁoːtə].

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 12658, this pair ranks #1,962,843 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of droht vs drohte

Shared letters: dhort. Private to "droht": -. Private to "drohte": e.

"droht" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "drohte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • drohtddroht · dorht · drhot · drohht · drohtt · droth · drroht · rdoht
  • drohteddrohte · dorhte · drhote · drohet · drohhte · drohtte · drothe · drrohte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "droht" and "drohte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([dʁoːt] versus [ˈdʁoːtə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "droht" or "drohte"?
"droht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,306 in our German list, against #9,352 for "drohte". 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 "droht" and "drohte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "droht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "drohte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,962,843 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "droht" and "drohte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dröhnt vs drohte". 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 #1,962,843 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