RabevsrapsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#20,029
“Rabe” frequency rank
#27,016
“raps” frequency rank
47045
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Rabe raps
Definition schwarze Vogelart, der Kolkrabe 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs rap

Letter map: Rabe vs raps

Shared letters muted; letters that set Rabe and raps apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. Rabe (CVCV) and raps (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
Rabe
4 ch
raps

Part-of-speech tell for Rabe / raps

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Rabe is anoun and rapsaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47045, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Rabe is recorded at frequency rank #20,029, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁaːbə]. raps is at rank #27,016, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 47045, this pair ranks #1,298,084 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Rabe vs raps

Shared letters: ar. Private to "Rabe": be. Private to "raps": ps.

"Rabe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "raps" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Rabearbe · rabbe · raeb · rbae · rrabe
  • rapsarps · rapps · rapss · rasp · rpas · rraps

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Rabe" and "raps" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Rabe" is a noun and "raps" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Rabe" or "raps"?
"Rabe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,029 in our German list, against #27,016 for "raps". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "Rabe" and "raps". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Rabe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "raps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,298,084 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Rabe" and "raps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs raps". 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 #1,298,084 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