GralvsgraueWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Gral is a noun, graue is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Gral” is a noun and “graue” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,617
“Gral” frequency rank
#8,723
“graue” frequency rank
42340
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gral graue
Definition eine geheimnisvolle, wundervolle Schale, aus Stein oder Kristall, die immer nur Auserwählten oder Berufenen sichtbar ist Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs grau

Where the eye mixes Gral and graue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Gral runs 4 letters (CCVC) against graue's 5 (CCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Gral
5 ch
graue

Visual trap between Gral and graue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gral is [ɡʁaːl] while graue is [ˈɡʁaʊ̯ə]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42340, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gral is recorded at frequency rank #33,617, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡʁaːl]. graue is at rank #8,723, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɡʁaʊ̯ə].

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 42340, this pair ranks #1,452,372 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Gral vs graue

Shared letters: agr. Private to "Gral": l. Private to "graue": eu.

"Gral" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "graue" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Gralgarl · ggral · grall · grla · grral · rgal
  • grauegarue · ggraue · graeu · grraue · gruae · rgaue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Gral" and "graue" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gral" is a noun and "graue" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Gral" or "graue"?
"graue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,723 in our German list, against #33,617 for "Gral". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gral" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "graue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,452,372 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gral" and "graue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gao vs Gral". 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 #1,452,372 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