RadevsredWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#43,432
“Rade” frequency rank
#1,935
“red” frequency rank
45367
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Rade red
Definition wilde Ackerpflanze 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs reden

Where the eye mixes Rade and red

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Rade
3 ch
red

Look-alike desk: Rade vs red

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Rade is [ˈʁaːdə] while red is [ʁeːt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45367, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Rade is recorded at frequency rank #43,432, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁaːdə]. red is at rank #1,935, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʁeːt].

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 45367, this pair ranks #1,355,434 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Rade vs red

Shared letters: der. Private to "Rade": a. Private to "red": -.

"Rade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "red" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Radearde · radde · rdae · rrade

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Rade" and "red" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Rade" is a noun and "red" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Rade" or "red"?
"red" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,935 in our German list, against #43,432 for "Rade". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Rade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "red" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,355,434 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Rade" and "red" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rade vs Ramen". 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 #1,355,434 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