übervsUkeConfusable pair

Quick tell: über is a preposition, Uke is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“über” is a preposition and “Uke” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#54
“über” frequency rank
#44,987
“Uke” frequency rank
45041
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature über Uke
Definition oberhalb liegend (Antwort auf die Frage „wo?“) im Judo die Person, die geworfen wird beziehungsweise an der die Technik ausgeführt wird

Letter map: über vs Uke

Shared letters muted; letters that set über and Uke apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

4 ch
über
3 ch
Uke

Role in the sentence - über and Uke

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: über is apreposition and Ukeanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45041, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

über is recorded at frequency rank #54, classified as aprep, pronounced [ˈyːbɐ]. Uke is at rank #44,987, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 45041, this pair ranks #1,366,430 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of über vs Uke

Shared letters: e. Private to "über": brü. Private to "Uke": ku.

"über" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "Uke" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "über" and "Uke" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "über" is a preposition and "Uke" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "über" vs "Uke" - which ranks higher?
"über" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #54 in our German list, against #44,987 for "Uke". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "über" and "Uke".

  • Full dictionary entry for "über" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Uke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,366,430 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "über" and "Uke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs Uke". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,366,430 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