SperbervsspürbarWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Sperber is a noun, spürbar is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Sperber” is a noun and “spürbar” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,234
“Sperber” frequency rank
#10,178
“spürbar” frequency rank
54412
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sperber spürbar
Definition der kleinste deutsche Greifvogel so, dass man es körperlich wahrnehmen kann

Where the eye mixes Sperber and spürbar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Sperber and spürbar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
Sperber
7 ch
spürbar

Why the eye confuses Sperber with spürbar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Sperber is [ˈʃpɛʁbɐ] while spürbar is [ˈʃpyːɐ̯baːɐ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sperber is recorded at frequency rank #44,234, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃpɛʁbɐ]. spürbar is at rank #10,178, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʃpyːɐ̯baːɐ̯].

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 54412, this pair ranks #1,019,944 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Sperber vs spürbar

Shared letters: bprs. Private to "Sperber": e. Private to "spürbar": aü.

"Sperber" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "spürbar" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Sperber ← pserber · seprber · spebrer · sperbber · sperberr · sperbre · sperebr · sperrber

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Sperber" and "spürbar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sperber" is a noun and "spürbar" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Sperber" vs "spürbar" - which ranks higher?
"spürbar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,178 in our German list, against #44,234 for "Sperber". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sperber" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spürbar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,019,944 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sperber" and "spürbar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Serbe vs Sperber". 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 #1,019,944 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