Which to use
“raten” is a verb and “rotes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,067
- “raten” frequency rank
- #9,617
- “rotes” frequency rank
- 13684
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | raten | rotes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | einen Rat geben/erteilen, empfehlen | Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs rot |
Where the eye mixes raten and rotes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses raten with rotes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: raten is [ˈʁaːtn̩] while rotes is [ˈʁoːtəs]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13684, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
raten is recorded at frequency rank #4,067, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁaːtn̩]. rotes is at rank #9,617, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁoːtəs].
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 13684, this pair ranks #1,956,406 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of raten vs rotes
Shared letters: ert. Private to "raten": an. Private to "rotes": os.
"raten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "rotes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "raten" and "rotes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "raten" or "rotes" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "raten" and "rotes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "raten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rotes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,956,406 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "raten" and "rotes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rades vs rotes". 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 #1,956,406 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.