rechenvsRechtWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#38,966
“rechen” frequency rank
#227
“Recht” frequency rank
39193
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rechen Recht
Definition etwas, häufig auf dem Boden Liegendes mit einem Rechen, einer Harke zusammentragen staatlich festgelegte und anerkannte Ordnung des menschlichen Zusammenlebens, deren Einhaltung durch staatlich organisierten Zwang garantiert wird

Where the eye mixes rechen and Recht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
rechen
5 ch
Recht

Visual trap between rechen and Recht

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rechen is [ˈʁɛçn̩] while Recht is [ʁɛçt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39193, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rechen is recorded at frequency rank #38,966, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁɛçn̩]. Recht is at rank #227, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʁɛçt].

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 39193, this pair ranks #1,543,488 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rechen vs Recht

Shared letters: cehr. Private to "rechen": n. Private to "Recht": t.

"rechen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Recht" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rechenerchen · rcehen · recchen · recehn · rechhen · rehcen · rrechen
  • Rechtercht · rceht · reccht · rechht · rechtt · recth · rehct · rrecht

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rechen" and "Recht" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rechen" is a verb and "Recht" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "rechen" vs "Recht" - which ranks higher?
"Recht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #227 in our German list, against #38,966 for "rechen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rechen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Recht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,543,488 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rechen" and "Recht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recent vs rechen". 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 #1,543,488 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