reifervsReiseWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: reifer is a adjective, Reise is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#28,824
“reifer” frequency rank
#1,091
“Reise” frequency rank
29915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reifer Reise
Definition Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs reif Fortbewegung von einem Ausgangspunkt zu einem entfernten Ort mit dortigem Aufenthalt und wieder zurück

Where the eye mixes reifer and Reise

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

6 ch
reifer
5 ch
Reise

Visual trap between reifer and Reise

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reifer is [ˈʁaɪ̯fɐ] while Reise is [ˈʁaɪ̯zə]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reifer is recorded at frequency rank #28,824, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁaɪ̯fɐ]. Reise is at rank #1,091, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁaɪ̯zə].

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 29915, this pair ranks #1,757,849 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of reifer vs Reise

Shared letters: eir. Private to "reifer": f. Private to "Reise": s.

"reifer" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "Reise" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reifererifer · refier · reiefr · reiferr · reiffer · reifre · riefer · rreifer
  • Reiseerise · reies · reisse · resie · rreise

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "reifer" and "Reise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reifer" is an adjective and "Reise" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "reifer" or "Reise" show up more?
"Reise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,091 in our German list, against #28,824 for "reifer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "reifer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Reise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,757,849 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reifer" and "Reise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reibe vs reifer". 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 #1,757,849 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