GräbervsgraveWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Gräber is a noun, grave is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Gräber” is a noun and “grave” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,159
“Gräber” frequency rank
#48,941
“grave” frequency rank
62100
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gräber grave
Definition Person, die aus bestimmten Gründen eine Vertiefung in der Erde aushebt langsam und ernst, feierlich

Where the eye mixes Gräber and grave

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Gräber
5 ch
grave

Look-alike desk: Gräber vs grave

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gräber is [ˈɡʁɛːbɐ] while grave is [ˈɡʁaːvə]. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62100, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gräber is recorded at frequency rank #13,159, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡʁɛːbɐ]. grave is at rank #48,941, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈɡʁaːvə].

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 62100, this pair ranks #725,149 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Gräber vs grave

Shared letters: egr. Private to "Gräber": . Private to "grave": av.

"Gräber" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "grave" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gravegarve · ggrave · graev · gravve · grrave · grvae · rgave

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Gräber" and "grave" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gräber" is a noun and "grave" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Gräber" or "grave" show up more?
"Gräber" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,159 in our German list, against #48,941 for "grave". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gräber" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grave" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #725,149 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gräber" and "grave" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "graut 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 #725,149 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