realvsregtWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#2,082
“real” frequency rank
#7,102
“regt” frequency rank
9184
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature real regt
Definition in materieller Form vorhanden 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs regen

Where the eye mixes real and regt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
real
4 ch
regt

Why the eye confuses real with regt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: real is [ʁeˈaːl] while regt is [ʁeːkt]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9184, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

real is recorded at frequency rank #2,082, classified as anadj, pronounced [ʁeˈaːl]. regt is at rank #7,102, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʁeːkt].

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 9184, this pair ranks #1,981,090 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of real vs regt

Shared letters: er. Private to "real": al. Private to "regt": gt.

"real" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "regt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • realeral · rael · reall · rela · rreal
  • regtergt · reggt · regtt · retg · rget · rregt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "real" and "regt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "real" is an adjective and "regt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "real" or "regt" show up more?
"real" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,082 in our German list, against #7,102 for "regt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "real" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "regt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,981,090 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "real" and "regt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "regst vs regt". 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 #1,981,090 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