PreisvspressWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Preis is a noun, press is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Preis” is a noun and “press” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#604
“Preis” frequency rank
#8,925
“press” frequency rank
9529
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Preis press
Definition beim Erwerb einer Ware oder Dienstleistung zu zahlender Geldbetrag 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs pressen

Where the eye mixes Preis and press

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

5 ch
Preis
5 ch
press

Look-alike desk: Preis vs press

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Preis is [pʁaɪ̯s] while press is [pʁɛs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “Preis” becomes s in “press”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9529, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Preis is recorded at frequency rank #604, classified as anoun, pronounced [pʁaɪ̯s]. press is at rank #8,925, tagged as averb, pronounced [pʁɛs].

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 9529, this pair ranks #1,979,512 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Preis vs press

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "Preis": i. Private to "press": -.

"Preis" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "press" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Preisperis · ppreis · preiss · presi · prreis · rpeis
  • pressperss · ppress · pres · preß · prress · prses · rpess

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Preis" and "press" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Preis" is a noun and "press" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Preis" vs "press" - which ranks higher?
"Preis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #604 in our German list, against #8,925 for "press". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Preis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "press" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,979,512 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Preis" and "press" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "press vs presst". 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 #1,979,512 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