rufevsruleWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: rufe is a verb, rule is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rufe” is a verb and “rule” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,967
“rufe” frequency rank
#31,762
“rule” frequency rank
38729
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rufe rule
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs rufen Regel, Vorschrift

Letter map: rufe vs rule

Shared letters muted; letters that set rufe and rule apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
rufe
4 ch
rule

Part-of-speech tell for rufe / rule

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: rufe is averb and ruleanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - f in “rufe” becomes l in “rule”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38729, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rufe is recorded at frequency rank #6,967, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁuːfə]. rule is at rank #31,762, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 38729, this pair ranks #1,556,169 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rufe vs rule

Shared letters: eru. Private to "rufe": f. Private to "rule": l.

"rufe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "rule" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ruferfue · rrufe · ruef · ruffe · urfe
  • rulerlue · rrule · ruel · rulle · urle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rufe" and "rule" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rufe" is a verb and "rule" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "rufe" vs "rule" - which ranks higher?
"rufe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,967 in our German list, against #31,762 for "rule". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "rufe" vs "rule" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rufe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,556,169 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rufe" and "rule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs rule". 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 #1,556,169 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