RechtvsrichWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Recht is a noun, rich is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#227
“Recht” frequency rank
#12,999
“rich” frequency rank
13226
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Recht rich
Definition staatlich festgelegte und anerkannte Ordnung des menschlichen Zusammenlebens, deren Einhaltung durch staatlich organisierten Zwang garantiert wird viel von einer Ressource (speziell Geld) besitzend; reich

Where the eye mixes Recht and rich

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Recht
4 ch
rich

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Recht is [ʁɛçt] while rich is [rɪt͡ʃ]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13226, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Recht is recorded at frequency rank #227, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʁɛçt]. rich is at rank #12,999, tagged as anadj, pronounced [rɪt͡ʃ].

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 13226, this pair ranks #1,959,306 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Recht vs rich

Shared letters: chr. Private to "Recht": et. Private to "rich": i.

"Recht" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "rich" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Rechtercht · rceht · reccht · rechht · rechtt · recth · rehct · rrecht
  • richirch · rcih · ricch · richh · rihc · rrich

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Recht" and "rich" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Recht" is a noun and "rich" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Recht" or "rich"?
"Recht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #227 in our German list, against #12,999 for "rich". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "Recht" and "rich". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Recht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rich" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,959,306 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Recht" and "rich" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rich vs Rios". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list