grobvsgroberWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,843
“grob” frequency rank
#20,943
“grober” frequency rank
26786
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grob grober
Definition unfein, unbehauen, unbearbeitet, unrein von Stoffen, Oberflächen und Material, ungenau, unscharf Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs grob

Where the eye mixes grob and grober

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
grob
6 ch
grober

Look-alike desk: grob vs grober

A purely visual mix-up. grob ([ɡʁoːp]) and grober ([ɡʁoːbɐ]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “grob” sits inside “grober”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26786, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grob is recorded at frequency rank #5,843, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡʁoːp]. grober is at rank #20,943, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡʁoːbɐ].

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 26786, this pair ranks #1,812,405 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of grob vs grober

Shared letters: bgor. Private to "grob": -. Private to "grober": e.

"grob" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "grober" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grobggrob · gorb · grbo · grobb · grrob · rgob
  • groberggrober · gorber · grboer · grobber · groberr · grobre · groebr · grrober

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "grob" and "grober" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ɡʁoːp] versus [ɡʁoːbɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "grob" or "grober"?
"grob" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,843 in our German list, against #20,943 for "grober". 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 "grob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grober" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,812,405 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grob" and "grober" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grober vs grobes". 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 #1,812,405 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