PreisvspriusTell them apart

Quick tell: Preis is a noun, prius is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#604
“Preis” frequency rank
#44,857
“prius” frequency rank
45461
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Preis prius
Definition beim Erwerb einer Ware oder Dienstleistung zu zahlender Geldbetrag eher, vorher, früher, zuvor

Letter map: Preis vs prius

Shared letters muted; letters that set Preis and prius apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
Preis
5 ch
prius

Grammar separator: Preis vs prius

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Preis is anoun and priusanadverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45461, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Preis is recorded at frequency rank #604, classified as anoun, pronounced [pʁaɪ̯s]. prius is at rank #44,857, tagged as anadv.

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 45461, this pair ranks #1,352,216 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Preis vs prius

Shared letters: iprs. Private to "Preis": e. Private to "prius": u.

"Preis" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "prius" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Preisperis · ppreis · preiss · presi · prreis · rpeis
  • priuspirus · pprius · prisu · priuss · prrius · pruis · rpius

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Preis" and "prius" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Preis" is a noun and "prius" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Preis" or "prius" show up more?
"Preis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #604 in our German list, against #44,857 for "prius". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "Preis" vs "prius" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Preis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prius" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,352,216 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Preis" and "prius" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prius 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 #1,352,216 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