ruhenvsruleTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#8,268
“ruhen” frequency rank
#31,762
“rule” frequency rank
40030
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ruhen rule
Definition sich erholen, eine Pause machen Regel, Vorschrift

Letter map: ruhen vs rule

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

5 ch
ruhen
4 ch
rule

Role in the sentence - ruhen and rule

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ruhen is averb and ruleanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40030, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ruhen is recorded at frequency rank #8,268, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁuːən]. 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 40030, this pair ranks #1,519,985 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ruhen vs rule

Shared letters: eru. Private to "ruhen": hn. Private to "rule": l.

"ruhen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rule" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ruhenrhuen · rruhen · ruehn · ruhenn · ruhhen · ruhne · urhen
  • rulerlue · rrule · ruel · rulle · urle

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ruhen" and "rule" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ruhen" is a verb and "rule" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ruhen" or "rule"?
"ruhen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,268 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.

What to do next

You've compared "ruhen" and "rule". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ruhen" 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 #1,519,985 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ruhen" 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 #1,519,985 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