GravesvsGrevenConfusable pair

Quick tell: Graves is a noun, Greven is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Graves” is a noun and “Greven” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,001
“Graves” frequency rank
#36,968
“Greven” frequency rank
82969
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Graves Greven
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Grave eine Stadt in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland

Letter map: Graves vs Greven

Shared letters muted; letters that set Graves and Greven apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
Graves
6 ch
Greven

Part-of-speech tell for Graves / Greven

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Graves is anoun and Grevenaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82969, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Graves is recorded at frequency rank #46,001, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡʁaːvəs]. Greven is at rank #36,968, tagged as aname, 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 82969, this pair ranks #147,892 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Graves vs Greven

Shared letters: egrv. Private to "Graves": as. Private to "Greven": n.

"Graves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "Greven" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Gravesgarves · ggraves · graevs · gravess · gravse · gravves · grraves · grvaes
  • Grevengerven · ggreven · greevn · grevenn · grevne · grevven · grreven · grveen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Graves" for "Greven" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Graves" is a noun and "Greven" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Graves" or "Greven" show up more?
"Greven" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,968 in our German list, against #46,001 for "Graves". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "Graves" vs "Greven" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Graves" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Greven" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #147,892 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Graves" and "Greven" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grave vs Graves". 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 #147,892 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