ragtvsrayConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#20,707
“ragt” frequency rank
#4,925
“ray” frequency rank
25632
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ragt ray
Definition 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs ragen Strahl, der von einer Energiequelle ausgeht

Where the eye mixes ragt and ray

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

4 ch
ragt
3 ch
ray

Look-alike desk: ragt vs ray

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ragt is [ʁaːkt] while ray is [ɹeɪ]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25632, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ragt is recorded at frequency rank #20,707, classified as averb, pronounced [ʁaːkt]. ray is at rank #4,925, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɹeɪ].

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 25632, this pair ranks #1,830,323 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ragt vs ray

Shared letters: ar. Private to "ragt": gt. Private to "ray": y.

"ragt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "ray" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ragtargt · raggt · ragtt · ratg · rgat · rragt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ragt" and "ray" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ragt" is a verb and "ray" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ragt" or "ray" show up more?
"ray" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,925 in our German list, against #20,707 for "ragt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "ragt" and "ray" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ragt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ray" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,830,323 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ragt" and "ray" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ragt vs regst". 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 #1,830,323 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