rechenvsrechtemWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: rechen is a verb, rechtem is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#38,966
“rechen” frequency rank
#44,167
“rechtem” frequency rank
83133
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rechen rechtem
Definition etwas, häufig auf dem Boden Liegendes mit einem Rechen, einer Harke zusammentragen Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs recht

Where the eye mixes rechen and rechtem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. rechen runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against rechtem's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
rechen
7 ch
rechtem

Why the eye confuses rechen with rechtem

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rechen is [ˈʁɛçn̩] while rechtem is [ˈʁɛçtəm]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83133, 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]. rechtem is at rank #44,167, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁɛçtəm].

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 83133, this pair ranks #145,086 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rechen vs rechtem

Shared letters: cehr. Private to "rechen": n. Private to "rechtem": mt.

"rechen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "rechtem" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rechenerchen · rcehen · recchen · recehn · rechhen · rehcen · rrechen
  • rechtemerchtem · rcehtem · recchtem · rechetm · rechhtem · rechtemm · rechtme · rechttem

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rechen" and "rechtem" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rechen" is a verb and "rechtem" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "rechen" or "rechtem" show up more?
"rechen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,966 in our German list, against #44,167 for "rechtem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "rechen" and "rechtem" 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 "rechtem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,086 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rechen" and "rechtem" 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 #145,086 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