richtevsrichtigeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#13,000
“richte” frequency rank
#841
“richtige” frequency rank
13841
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature richte richtige
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs richten Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs richtig

Where the eye mixes richte and richtige

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
richte
8 ch
richtige

Visual trap between richte and richtige

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: richte is [ˈʁɪçtə] while richtige is [ˈʁɪçtɪɡə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 13841, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

richte is recorded at frequency rank #13,000, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁɪçtə]. richtige is at rank #841, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁɪçtɪɡə].

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 13841, this pair ranks #1,955,323 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of richte vs richtige

Shared letters: cehirt. Private to "richte": -. Private to "richtige": g.

"richte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "richtige" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • richteirchte · rcihte · ricchte · richet · richhte · ricthe · rihcte · rrichte
  • richtigeirchtige · rcihtige · ricchtige · richhtige · richitge · richtgie · richtieg · richtigge

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "richte" for "richtige" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "richte" is a verb and "richtige" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "richte" or "richtige" show up more?
"richtige" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #841 in our German list, against #13,000 for "richte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "richte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "richtige" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,955,323 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "richte" and "richtige" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rechtem vs richte". 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 #1,955,323 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