PreisvspriesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#604
“Preis” frequency rank
#44,147
“pries” frequency rank
44751
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Preis pries
Definition beim Erwerb einer Ware oder Dienstleistung zu zahlender Geldbetrag 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs preisen

Where the eye mixes Preis and pries

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

5 ch
Preis
5 ch
pries

Look-alike desk: Preis vs pries

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Preis is [pʁaɪ̯s] while pries is [pʁiːs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (ei ↔ ie) - a transposition the eye reads straight past, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44751, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Preis is recorded at frequency rank #604, classified as anoun, pronounced [pʁaɪ̯s]. pries is at rank #44,147, tagged as averb, pronounced [pʁiːs].

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 44751, this pair ranks #1,375,961 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Preis vs pries

Shared letters: eiprs. Private to "Preis": -. Private to "pries": -.

"Preis" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "pries" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Preisperis · ppreis · preiss · presi · prreis · rpeis
  • priespires · ppries · priess · prries · rpies

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Preis" and "pries" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Preis" is a noun and "pries" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Preis" or "pries" show up more?
"Preis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #604 in our German list, against #44,147 for "pries". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Preis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pries" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,375,961 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Preis" and "pries" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pries vs pros". 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 #1,375,961 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