rauervsRuderWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: rauer is a adjective, Ruder is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#38,353
“rauer” frequency rank
#10,353
“Ruder” frequency rank
48706
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rauer Ruder
Definition Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs rau unten blattförmig erweiterte Stange zum Fortbewegen eines Bootes

Where the eye mixes rauer and Ruder

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. rauer (CVVVC) and Ruder (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
rauer
5 ch
Ruder

Why the eye confuses rauer with Ruder

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rauer is [ˈʁaʊ̯ɐ] while Ruder is [ˈʁuːdɐ]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48706, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rauer is recorded at frequency rank #38,353, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁaʊ̯ɐ]. Ruder is at rank #10,353, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁuːdɐ].

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 48706, this pair ranks #1,238,656 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rauer vs Ruder

Shared letters: eru. Private to "rauer": a. Private to "Ruder": d.

"rauer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "Ruder" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raueraruer · raeur · rauerr · raure · rrauer · ruaer
  • Ruderrduer · rruder · rudder · ruderr · rudre · ruedr · urder

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rauer" and "Ruder" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rauer" is an adjective and "Ruder" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "rauer" or "Ruder" show up more?
"Ruder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,353 in our German list, against #38,353 for "rauer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rauer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ruder" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,238,656 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rauer" and "Ruder" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rauer vs raunen". 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 #1,238,656 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