readvsresWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: read is a verb, res is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“read” is a verb and “res” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,794
“read” frequency rank
#14,909
“res” frequency rank
24703
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature read res
Definition lesen nichts (wörtlich: nicht etwas)

Letter map: read vs res

Shared letters muted; letters that set read and res apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
read
3 ch
res

Role in the sentence - read and res

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: read is averb and resapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24703, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

read is recorded at frequency rank #9,794, classified as averb, pronounced [ɹiːd]. res is at rank #14,909, tagged as apron, pronounced […].

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 24703, this pair ranks #1,843,932 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of read vs res

Shared letters: er. Private to "read": ad. Private to "res": s.

"read" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "res" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • readerad · raed · readd · reda · rread

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "read" and "res" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "read" is a verb and "res" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "read" or "res" show up more?
"read" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,794 in our German list, against #14,909 for "res". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "read" vs "res" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "read" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "res" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,843,932 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "read" and "res" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs res". 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 #1,843,932 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