rechvsRemsConfusable pair

Quick tell: rech is a verb, Rems is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rech” is a verb and “Rems” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,224
“rech” frequency rank
#33,782
“Rems” frequency rank
80006
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rech Rems
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs rechen rechter Zufluss des Neckar

Where the eye mixes rech and Rems

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. rech and Rems follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
rech
4 ch
Rems

Look-alike desk: rech vs Rems

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rech is [ʁɛç] while Rems is [ʁɛms]. 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 (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80006, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rech is recorded at frequency rank #46,224, classified as averb, pronounced [ʁɛç]. Rems is at rank #33,782, tagged as aname, pronounced [ʁɛms].

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 80006, this pair ranks #204,475 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rech vs Rems

Shared letters: er. Private to "rech": ch. Private to "Rems": ms.

"rech" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Rems" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rech ← erch · rceh · recch · rechh · rehc · rrech
  • Rems ← erms · remms · remss · resm · rmes · rrems

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rech" for "Rems" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rech" is a verb and "Rems" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "rech" or "Rems"?
"Rems" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,782 in our German list, against #46,224 for "rech". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rech" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Rems" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #204,475 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rech" and "Rems" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rack vs rech". 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 #204,475 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