rauevsräumteTell them apart

Quick tell: raue is a adjective, räumte is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#24,891
“raue” frequency rank
#21,045
“räumte” frequency rank
45936
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raue räumte
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs rau 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs räumen

Where the eye mixes raue and räumte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. raue runs 4 letters (CVVV) against räumte's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
raue
6 ch
räumte

Look-alike desk: raue vs räumte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: raue is [ˈʁaʊ̯ə] while räumte is [ˈʁɔɪ̯mtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45936, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raue is recorded at frequency rank #24,891, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁaʊ̯ə]. räumte is at rank #21,045, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʁɔɪ̯mtə].

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 45936, this pair ranks #1,336,121 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of raue vs räumte

Shared letters: eru. Private to "raue": a. Private to "räumte": mtä.

"raue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "räumte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raue ← arue · raeu · rraue · ruae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "raue" and "räumte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "raue" is an adjective and "räumte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "raue" or "räumte"?
"räumte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,045 in our German list, against #24,891 for "raue". 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 "raue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "räumte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,336,121 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raue" and "räumte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "raue vs RUB". 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 #1,336,121 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