StreifevsstreiftWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#19,722
“Streife” frequency rank
#28,869
“streift” frequency rank
48591
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Streife streift
Definition Personengruppe (von Militär, Polizei, Sicherheitsdienst), die Fahrten oder Gänge zwecks Kontrolle eines Bereichs durchführt 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs streifen

Where the eye mixes Streife and streift

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Streife (CCCVVCV) and streift (CCCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
Streife
7 ch
streift

Look-alike desk: Streife vs streift

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Streife is [ˈʃtʁaɪ̯fə] while streift is [ʃtʁaɪ̯ft]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “Streife” becomes t in “streift”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48591, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Streife is recorded at frequency rank #19,722, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtʁaɪ̯fə]. streift is at rank #28,869, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃtʁaɪ̯ft].

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 48591, this pair ranks #1,242,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Streife vs streift

Shared letters: efirst. Private to "Streife": -. Private to "streift": -.

"Streife" · 7 letters · shape CCCVVCV  ·  "streift" · 7 letters · shape CCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Streife ← srteife · sstreife · sterife · strefie · streief · streiffe · striefe · strreife
  • streift ← srteift · sstreift · sterift · strefit · streifft · streiftt · streitf · strieft

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Streife" for "streift" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Streife" is a noun and "streift" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Streife" vs "streift" - which ranks higher?
"Streife" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,722 in our German list, against #28,869 for "streift". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Streife" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "streift" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,242,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Streife" and "streift" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "streift vs stresst". 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 #1,242,851 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