Which to use
“rue” is a noun and “ruft” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,534
- “rue” frequency rank
- #2,318
- “ruft” frequency rank
- 18852
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rue | ruft |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Reue | 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs rufen |
Where the eye mixes rue and ruft
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: rue vs ruft
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rue is [ruː] while ruft is [ʁuːft]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18852, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rue is recorded at frequency rank #16,534, classified as anoun, pronounced [ruː]. ruft is at rank #2,318, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʁuːft].
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 18852, this pair ranks #1,914,268 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of rue vs ruft
Shared letters: ru. Private to "rue": e. Private to "ruft": ft.
"rue" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "ruft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ruft ← rfut · rruft · rufft · ruftt · rutf · urft
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rue" for "ruft" ever safe?
Frequency check: "rue" vs "ruft" - which ranks higher?
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 "rue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ruft" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,914,268 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rue" and "ruft" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "RUB vs rue". 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 #1,914,268 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.