tracevstraueTell them apart

Which to use

“trace” and “traue” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#42,869
“trace” frequency rank
#10,379
“traue” frequency rank
53248
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature trace traue
Definition zurückverfolgen, verfolgen 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs trauen

Where the eye mixes trace and traue

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

5 ch
trace
5 ch
traue

Look-alike desk: trace vs traue

A purely visual mix-up. trace ([treɪs]) and traue ([ˈtʁaʊ̯ə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - c in “trace” becomes u in “traue”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53248, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

trace is recorded at frequency rank #42,869, classified as averb, pronounced [treɪs]. traue is at rank #10,379, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈtʁaʊ̯ə].

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 53248, this pair ranks #1,065,385 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of trace vs traue

Shared letters: aert. Private to "trace": c. Private to "traue": u.

"trace" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "traue" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tracertace · tarce · tracce · traec · trcae · trrace · ttrace
  • trauertaue · tarue · traeu · trraue · truae · ttraue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "trace" and "traue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([treɪs] versus [ˈtʁaʊ̯ə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "trace" or "traue" show up more?
"traue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,379 in our German list, against #42,869 for "trace". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "trace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "traue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,065,385 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "trace" and "traue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "trace vs tränke". 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 #1,065,385 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