StreifevsstreifteTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#19,722
“Streife” frequency rank
#30,795
“streifte” frequency rank
50517
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Streife streifte
Definition Personengruppe (von Militär, Polizei, Sicherheitsdienst), die Fahrten oder Gänge zwecks Kontrolle eines Bereichs durchführt 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs streifen

Where the eye mixes Streife and streifte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. Streife runs 7 letters (CCCVVCV) against streifte's 8 (CCCVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Streife
8 ch
streifte

Why the eye confuses Streife with streifte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Streife is [ˈʃtʁaɪ̯fə] while streifte is [ˈʃtʁaɪ̯ftə]. 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 50517, 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]. streifte is at rank #30,795, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtʁaɪ̯ftə].

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 50517, this pair ranks #1,170,721 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Streife vs streifte

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

"Streife" · 7 letters · shape CCCVVCV  ·  "streifte" · 8 letters · shape CCCVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Streife ← srteife · sstreife · sterife · strefie · streief · streiffe · striefe · strreife
  • streifte ← srteifte · sstreifte · sterifte · strefite · streifet · streiffte · streiftte · streitfe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Streife" and "streifte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Streife" is a noun and "streifte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Streife" or "streifte"?
"Streife" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,722 in our German list, against #30,795 for "streifte". 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 "Streife" and "streifte" 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 "streifte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,170,721 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Streife" and "streifte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "streifte vs Streiter". 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 #1,170,721 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