vorvsvorneTell them apart

Quick tell: vor is a preposition, vorne is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vor” is a preposition and “vorne” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#64
“vor” frequency rank
#1,616
“vorne” frequency rank
1680
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vor vorne
Definition früher, eher Adverb, das den Ort anzeigt; vorne ist da, wo im Vergleich zu einem menschlichen Körper die Seite des Gesichtes wäre

Where the eye mixes vor and vorne

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

3 ch
vor
5 ch
vorne

Look-alike desk: vor vs vorne

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vor is [foːɐ̯] while vorne is [ˈfɔʁnə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “vor” sits inside “vorne”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1680, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vor is recorded at frequency rank #64, classified as aprep, pronounced [foːɐ̯]. vorne is at rank #1,616, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈfɔʁnə].

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 1680, this pair ranks #2,003,917 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vor vs vorne

Shared letters: orv. Private to "vor": -. Private to "vorne": en.

"vor" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "vorne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vorneovrne · vonre · voren · vornne · vorrne · vrone · vvorne

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vor" for "vorne" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vor" is a preposition and "vorne" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "vor" or "vorne" show up more?
"vor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #64 in our German list, against #1,616 for "vorne". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "vor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vorne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,003,917 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vor" and "vorne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "voip vs vor". 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 #2,003,917 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