gradesvsgrauerTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#15,903
“grades” frequency rank
#17,313
“grauer” frequency rank
33216
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grades grauer
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs grade Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs grau

Letter map: grades vs grauer

Shared letters muted; letters that set grades and grauer apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
grades
6 ch
grauer

Role in the sentence - grades and grauer

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: grades is averb and graueranadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33216, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grades is recorded at frequency rank #15,903, classified as averb, pronounced […]. grauer is at rank #17,313, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɡʁaʊ̯ɐ].

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 33216, this pair ranks #1,690,793 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of grades vs grauer

Shared letters: aegr. Private to "grades": ds. Private to "grauer": u.

"grades" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "grauer" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gradesgardes · ggrades · graddes · gradess · gradse · graeds · grdaes · grrades
  • grauergaruer · ggrauer · graeur · grauerr · graure · grrauer · gruaer · rgauer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "grades" and "grauer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "grades" is a verb and "grauer" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "grades" or "grauer"?
"grades" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,903 in our German list, against #17,313 for "grauer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "grades" and "grauer". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "grades" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grauer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,690,793 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grades" and "grauer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grauer 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 #1,690,793 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