notrevsNotrufTell them apart

Quick tell: notre is a adjective, Notruf is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#22,838
“notre” frequency rank
#11,106
“Notruf” frequency rank
33944
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature notre Notruf
Definition unser, unsere Signal, das übermittelt wird, um bei einem Notfall Hilfe zu alarmieren, üblicherweise das telefonische Anfordern von Rettungsdiensten wie Feuerwehr, Polizei oder Rettung

Where the eye mixes notre and Notruf

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. notre runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against Notruf's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
notre
6 ch
Notruf

Look-alike desk: notre vs Notruf

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: notre is [nɔtʁ] while Notruf is [ˈnoːtˌʁuːf]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33944, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

notre is recorded at frequency rank #22,838, classified as anadj, pronounced [nɔtʁ]. Notruf is at rank #11,106, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈnoːtˌʁuːf].

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 33944, this pair ranks #1,674,564 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of notre vs Notruf

Shared letters: nort. Private to "notre": e. Private to "Notruf": fu.

"notre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Notruf" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • notre ← nnotre · norte · noter · notrre · nottre · ntore · ontre
  • Notruf ← nnotruf · nortuf · notrfu · notrruf · notruff · nottruf · noturf · ntoruf

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "notre" and "Notruf" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "notre" is an adjective and "Notruf" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "notre" or "Notruf" show up more?
"Notruf" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,106 in our German list, against #22,838 for "notre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "notre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Notruf" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,674,564 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "notre" and "Notruf" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "node vs notre". 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 #1,674,564 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