grabevsgrauesTell them apart

Quick tell: grabe is a verb, graues is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#21,633
“grabe” frequency rank
#32,066
“graues” frequency rank
53699
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grabe graues
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs graben Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs grau

Where the eye mixes grabe and graues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
grabe
6 ch
graues

Look-alike desk: grabe vs graues

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: grabe is [ˈɡʁaːbə] while graues is [ˈɡʁaʊ̯əs]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grabe is recorded at frequency rank #21,633, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈɡʁaːbə]. graues is at rank #32,066, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɡʁaʊ̯əs].

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 53699, this pair ranks #1,047,832 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of grabe vs graues

Shared letters: aegr. Private to "grabe": b. Private to "graues": su.

"grabe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "graues" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grabegarbe · ggrabe · grabbe · graeb · grbae · grrabe · rgabe
  • grauesgarues · ggraues · graeus · grauess · grause · grraues · gruaes · rgaues

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "grabe" for "graues" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "grabe" is a verb and "graues" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "grabe" vs "graues" - which ranks higher?
"grabe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,633 in our German list, against #32,066 for "graues". 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 "grabe" and "graues" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "grabe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "graues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,047,832 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grabe" and "graues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "graues vs grave". 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 #1,047,832 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