realevsroleTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#7,521
“reale” frequency rank
#35,998
“role” frequency rank
43519
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reale role
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs real die Rolle

Letter map: reale vs role

Shared letters muted; letters that set reale and role apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. reale runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against role's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
reale
4 ch
role

Role in the sentence - reale and role

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: reale is anadjective and roleanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43519, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reale is recorded at frequency rank #7,521, classified as anadj, pronounced [ʁeˈaːlə]. role is at rank #35,998, tagged as anoun, 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 43519, this pair ranks #1,415,512 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reale vs role

Shared letters: elr. Private to "reale": a. Private to "role": o.

"reale" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "role" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reale ← erale · raele · reael · realle · relae · rreale
  • role ← orle · rloe · roel · rrole

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reale" and "role" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reale" is an adjective and "role" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "reale" or "role" show up more?
"reale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,521 in our German list, against #35,998 for "role". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "reale" and "role".

  • Full dictionary entry for "reale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "role" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,415,512 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reale" and "role" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs role". 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 #1,415,512 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