Which to use
“Teufel” is a noun and “teure” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,341
- “Teufel” frequency rank
- #7,118
- “teure” frequency rank
- 10459
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Teufel | teure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | böses Geisterwesen | Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs teuer |
Where the eye mixes Teufel and teure
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Teufel runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against teure's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between Teufel and teure
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Teufel is [ˈtɔɪ̯fl̩] while teure is [ˈtɔɪ̯ʁə]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10459, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Teufel is recorded at frequency rank #3,341, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈtɔɪ̯fl̩]. teure is at rank #7,118, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈtɔɪ̯ʁə].
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 10459, this pair ranks #1,975,021 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Teufel vs teure
Shared letters: etu. Private to "Teufel": fl. Private to "teure": r.
"Teufel" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "teure" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Teufel" for "teure" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Teufel" or "teure" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Teufel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "teure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,975,021 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Teufel" and "teure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "terme vs teure". 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 #1,975,021 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.