SperrevsspüreTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#10,943
“Sperre” frequency rank
#11,758
“spüre” frequency rank
22701
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sperre spüre
Definition ein Bauwerk, das den freien Verkehr einschränkt 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs spüren

Where the eye mixes Sperre and spüre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Sperre
5 ch
spüre

Visual trap between Sperre and spüre

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Sperre is [ˈʃpɛʁə] while spüre is [ˈʃpyːʁə]. 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 22701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sperre is recorded at frequency rank #10,943, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃpɛʁə]. spüre is at rank #11,758, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃpyːʁə].

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 22701, this pair ranks #1,870,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Sperre vs spüre

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "Sperre": -. Private to "spüre": ü.

"Sperre" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "spüre" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Sperrepserre · seprre · spere · sperer · spperre · sprere · ssperre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Sperre" and "spüre" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sperre" is a noun and "spüre" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Sperre" vs "spüre" - which ranks higher?
"Sperre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,943 in our German list, against #11,758 for "spüre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Sperre" and "spüre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sperre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spüre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,870,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sperre" and "spüre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sire vs spüre". 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 #1,870,851 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