ranavsraueTell them apart

Quick tell: rana is a noun, raue is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rana” is a noun and “raue” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,865
“rana” frequency rank
#24,891
“raue” frequency rank
69756
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rana raue
Definition der Erde nächster Stern; Sonne Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs rau

Where the eye mixes rana and raue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. rana (CVCV) and raue (CVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
rana
4 ch
raue

Why the eye confuses rana with raue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rana is [ɽáːnáː] while raue is [ˈʁaʊ̯ə]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69756, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rana is recorded at frequency rank #44,865, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɽáːnáː]. raue is at rank #24,891, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁaʊ̯ə].

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 69756, this pair ranks #466,885 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rana vs raue

Shared letters: ar. Private to "rana": n. Private to "raue": eu.

"rana" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "raue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rana ← arna · raan · ranna · rnaa · rrana
  • raue ← arue · raeu · rraue · ruae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rana" and "raue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rana" is a noun and "raue" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "rana" or "raue"?
"raue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,891 in our German list, against #44,865 for "rana". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rana" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "raue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #466,885 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rana" and "raue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rana vs RSA". 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 #466,885 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