trübevstrueTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,407
“trübe” frequency rank
#9,645
“true” frequency rank
44052
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature trübe true
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs trüb wahr, richtig

Where the eye mixes trübe and true

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
trübe
4 ch
true

Visual trap between trübe and true

A purely visual mix-up. trübe ([ˈtʁyːbə]) and true ([tɹuː]) 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 44052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

trübe is recorded at frequency rank #34,407, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈtʁyːbə]. true is at rank #9,645, tagged as anadj, pronounced [tɹuː].

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 44052, this pair ranks #1,398,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of trübe vs true

Shared letters: ert. Private to "trübe": . Private to "true": u.

"trübe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "true" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • truertue · trrue · ttrue · ture

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "trübe" and "true" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈtʁyːbə] versus [tɹuː]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "trübe" or "true" show up more?
"true" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,645 in our German list, against #34,407 for "trübe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "trübe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "true" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,398,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "trübe" and "true" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "trübe vs trügen". 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 #1,398,593 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