ruhte vs rule, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#36,599
“ruhte” frequency rank: #31,762
“rule” frequency rank: 68361
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ruhte	rule
Definition	1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs ruhen	Regel, Vorschrift

Letter map: ruhte vs rule

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

5 ch

ruhte

4 ch

rule

Grammar separator: ruhte vs rule

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ruhte is averb and ruleanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68361, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ruhte is recorded at frequency rank #36,599, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁuːtə]. 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 68361, this pair ranks #510,220 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ruhte vs rule

Shared letters: eru. Private to "ruhte": ht. Private to "rule": l.

"ruhte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "rule" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

ruhte ← rhute · rruhte · ruhet · ruhhte · ruhtte · ruthe · urhte
rule ← rlue · rrule · ruel · rulle · urle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ruhte" for "rule" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ruhte" is a verb and "rule" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "ruhte" or "rule"?

"rule" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,762 in our German list, against #36,599 for "ruhte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ruhte" and "rule".

Full dictionary entry for "ruhte" 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 #510,220 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ruhte" and "rule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rühmen vs ruhte". 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 #510,220 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.