recentvsRegenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#48,411
“recent” frequency rank
#1,987
“Regen” frequency rank
50398
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recent Regen
Definition kürzlich, jüngst kondensierter Wasserdampf, der als Wassertropfen zu Boden fällt; Süßwasser

Letter map: recent vs Regen

Shared letters muted; letters that set recent and Regen apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
recent
5 ch
Regen

Grammar separator: recent vs Regen

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: recent is anadjective and Regenanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50398, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recent is recorded at frequency rank #48,411, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. Regen is at rank #1,987, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁeːɡn̩].

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 50398, this pair ranks #1,175,162 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of recent vs Regen

Shared letters: enr. Private to "recent": ct. Private to "Regen": g.

"recent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "Regen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recentercent · rceent · reccent · recennt · recentt · recetn · recnet · reecnt
  • Regenergen · reegn · regenn · reggen · regne · rgeen · rregen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "recent" for "Regen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "recent" is an adjective and "Regen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "recent" or "Regen" show up more?
"Regen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,987 in our German list, against #48,411 for "recent". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "recent" and "Regen".

  • Full dictionary entry for "recent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Regen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,175,162 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recent" and "Regen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs recent". 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 #1,175,162 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