radelnvsRäderTell them apart

Quick tell: radeln is a verb, Räder is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“radeln” is a verb and “Räder” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,469
“radeln” frequency rank
#7,807
“Räder” frequency rank
32276
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature radeln Räder
Definition Fahrrad fahren deutschsprachiger Familienname, Nachname

Where the eye mixes radeln and Räder

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
radeln
5 ch
Räder

Look-alike desk: radeln vs Räder

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: radeln is [ˈʁaːdl̩n] while Räder is [ˈʁɛːdɐ]. 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 (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32276, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

radeln is recorded at frequency rank #24,469, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁaːdl̩n]. Räder is at rank #7,807, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈʁɛːdɐ].

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 32276, this pair ranks #1,711,069 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of radeln vs Räder

Shared letters: der. Private to "radeln": aln. Private to "Räder": ä.

"radeln" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "Räder" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • radelnardeln · raddeln · radelln · radelnn · radenl · radlen · raedln · rdaeln

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "radeln" and "Räder" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "radeln" is a verb and "Räder" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "radeln" or "Räder" show up more?
"Räder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,807 in our German list, against #24,469 for "radeln". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "radeln" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Räder" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,711,069 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "radeln" and "Räder" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "radeln 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 #1,711,069 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