ZehevsziehtConfusable pair

Quick tell: Zehe is a noun, zieht is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Zehe” is a noun and “zieht” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,650
“Zehe” frequency rank
#1,066
“zieht” frequency rank
44716
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Zehe zieht
Definition der einem Finger entsprechende Teil des Fußes 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs ziehen

Where the eye mixes Zehe and zieht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Zehe runs 4 letters (CVCV) against zieht's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Zehe
5 ch
zieht

Visual trap between Zehe and zieht

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Zehe is [ˈt͡seːə] while zieht is [t͡siːt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44716, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Zehe is recorded at frequency rank #43,650, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈt͡seːə]. zieht is at rank #1,066, tagged as averb, pronounced [t͡siːt].

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 44716, this pair ranks #1,377,055 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Zehe vs zieht

Shared letters: ehz. Private to "Zehe": -. Private to "zieht": it.

"Zehe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "zieht" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Zehe ← ezhe · zeeh · zehhe · zhee · zzehe
  • zieht ← izeht · zeiht · ziehht · ziehtt · zieth · zihet · zzieht

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Zehe" for "zieht" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Zehe" is a noun and "zieht" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Zehe" or "zieht"?
"zieht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,066 in our German list, against #43,650 for "Zehe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Zehe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "zieht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,377,055 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Zehe" and "zieht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "zechen vs Zehe". 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 #1,377,055 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