geradevsgradesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: gerade is a adjective, grades is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gerade” is an adjective and “grades” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#155
“gerade” frequency rank
#15,903
“grades” frequency rank
16058
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gerade grades
Definition nicht gebogen oder gekrümmt 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs grade

Letter map: gerade vs grades

Shared letters muted; letters that set gerade and grades apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
gerade
6 ch
grades

Part-of-speech tell for gerade / grades

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: gerade is anadjective and gradesaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16058, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gerade is recorded at frequency rank #155, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈʁaːdə]. grades is at rank #15,903, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 16058, this pair ranks #1,938,942 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gerade vs grades

Shared letters: adegr. Private to "gerade": -. Private to "grades": s.

"gerade" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "grades" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • geradeegrade · gearde · geradde · geraed · gerdae · gerrade · ggerade · greade
  • gradesgardes · ggrades · graddes · gradess · gradse · graeds · grdaes · grrades

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gerade" for "grades" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gerade" is an adjective and "grades" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "gerade" vs "grades" - which ranks higher?
"gerade" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #155 in our German list, against #15,903 for "grades". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "gerade" and "grades".

  • Full dictionary entry for "gerade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grades" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,938,942 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gerade" and "grades" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grades vs puzzles". 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 #1,938,942 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