queenvsquereWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,523
“queen” frequency rank
#29,296
“quere” frequency rank
34819
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature queen quere
Definition Königin 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs queren

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set queen and quere apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
queen
5 ch
quere

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: queen is [kwiːn] while quere is [ˈkveːʁə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34819, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

queen is recorded at frequency rank #5,523, classified as anoun, pronounced [kwiːn]. quere is at rank #29,296, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkveːʁə].

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 34819, this pair ranks #1,654,550 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of queen vs quere

Shared letters: equ. Private to "queen": n. Private to "quere": r.

"queen" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "quere" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • queenqeuen · qqueen · queenn · quen · quene · uqeen
  • quereqeure · qquere · querre · quree · uqere

Frequency comparison

queen#5,523
quere#29,296

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "queen" and "quere" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "queen" is a noun and "quere" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "queen" or "quere"?
"queen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,523 in our German list, against #29,296 for "quere". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering queen vs quere

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “queen”; for a verb, it's “quere”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “queen” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list