ReichelvsreichenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#35,985
“Reichel” frequency rank
#1,568
“reichen” frequency rank
37553
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Reichel reichen
Definition deutschsprachiger Nachname, Familienname jemandem etwas geben

Letter map: Reichel vs reichen

Shared letters muted; letters that set Reichel and reichen apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. Reichel and reichen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
Reichel
7 ch
reichen

Role in the sentence - Reichel and reichen

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Reichel is aname and reichenaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - l in “Reichel” becomes n in “reichen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Reichel is recorded at frequency rank #35,985, classified as aname, pronounced […]. reichen is at rank #1,568, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʁaɪ̯çn̩].

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 37553, this pair ranks #1,587,190 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Reichel vs reichen

Shared letters: cehir. Private to "Reichel": l. Private to "reichen": n.

"Reichel" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "reichen" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Reichel ← erichel · recihel · reicchel · reicehl · reichell · reichhel · reichle · reihcel
  • reichen ← erichen · recihen · reicchen · reicehn · reichenn · reichhen · reichne · reihcen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Reichel" and "reichen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Reichel" is a name and "reichen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Reichel" vs "reichen" - which ranks higher?
"reichen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,568 in our German list, against #35,985 for "Reichel". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "Reichel" and "reichen". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Reichel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reichen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,587,190 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Reichel" and "reichen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs Reichel". 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 #1,587,190 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