greifevsgreiftTell them apart

Which to use

“greife” and “greift” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18,911
“greife” frequency rank
#3,126
“greift” frequency rank
22037
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature greife greift
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs greifen 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs greifen

Where the eye mixes greife and greift

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
greife
6 ch
greift

Visual trap between greife and greift

A purely visual mix-up. greife ([ˈɡʁaɪ̯fə]) and greift ([ɡʁaɪ̯ft]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - e in “greife” becomes t in “greift”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22037, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

greife is recorded at frequency rank #18,911, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈɡʁaɪ̯fə]. greift is at rank #3,126, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡʁaɪ̯ft].

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 22037, this pair ranks #1,879,134 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of greife vs greift

Shared letters: efgir. Private to "greife": -. Private to "greift": t.

"greife" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "greift" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • greifegerife · ggreife · grefie · greief · greiffe · griefe · grreife · rgeife
  • greiftgerift · ggreift · grefit · greifft · greiftt · greitf · grieft · grreift

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "greife" for "greift" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈɡʁaɪ̯fə] versus [ɡʁaɪ̯ft]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "greife" or "greift" show up more?
"greift" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,126 in our German list, against #18,911 for "greife". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "greife" and "greift" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "greife" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "greift" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,879,134 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "greife" and "greift" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "greife vs Greis". 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 #1,879,134 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