Which to use
“treiben” and “treibt” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,081
- “treiben” frequency rank
- #3,925
- “treibt” frequency rank
- 7006
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | treiben | treibt |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personen oder Tiere dazu bringen, sich in eine bestimmte Richtung zu bewegen | 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs treiben |
Where the eye mixes treiben and treibt
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. treiben runs 7 letters (CCVVCVC) against treibt's 6 (CCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: treiben vs treibt
A purely visual mix-up. treiben ([ˈtʁaɪ̯bn̩]) and treibt ([tʁaɪ̯pt]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7006, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
treiben is recorded at frequency rank #3,081, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈtʁaɪ̯bn̩]. treibt is at rank #3,925, tagged as averb, pronounced [tʁaɪ̯pt].
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 7006, this pair ranks #1,989,717 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of treiben vs treibt
Shared letters: beirt. Private to "treiben": n. Private to "treibt": -.
"treiben" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC · "treibt" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "treiben" and "treibt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "treiben" or "treibt" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "treiben" and "treibt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "treiben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "treibt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,989,717 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "treiben" and "treibt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "treibt vs tretet". 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 #1,989,717 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.