rechvsRestWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#46,224
“rech” frequency rank
#1,119
“Rest” frequency rank
47343
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rech Rest
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs rechen übrig bleibender Teil des Ganzen

Where the eye mixes rech and Rest

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

4 ch
rech
4 ch
Rest

Visual trap between rech and Rest

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rech is [ʁɛç] while Rest is [ʁɛst]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47343, 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]. Rest is at rank #1,119, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʁɛst].

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 47343, this pair ranks #1,287,608 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rech vs Rest

Shared letters: er. Private to "rech": ch. Private to "Rest": st.

"rech" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Rest" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recherch · rceh · recch · rechh · rehc · rrech
  • Restresst · restt · rets · rrest · rset

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rech" and "Rest" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rech" is a verb and "Rest" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "rech" or "Rest" show up more?
"Rest" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,119 in our German list, against #46,224 for "rech". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rech" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Rest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,287,608 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rech" and "Rest" 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 #1,287,608 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