Which to use
“über” and “under” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,613
- “über” frequency rank
- #18,092
- “under” frequency rank
- 57705
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | über | under |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (Indique un lieu, sans mouvement) Au-dessus de, sur. | Sous. |
Where the eye mixes über and under
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between über and under
A purely visual mix-up. über (\ˈyː.bɐ\) and under (\ˈʌn.də(ɹ)\) 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 57705, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
über is recorded at frequency rank #39,613, classified as aprep, pronounced \ˈyː.bɐ\. under is at rank #18,092, tagged as aprep, pronounced \ˈʌn.də(ɹ)\.
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 57705, this pair ranks #113,435 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of über vs under
Shared letters: er. Private to "über": bü. Private to "under": dnu.
"über" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "under" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- under ← nuder · udner · undder · underr · undre · unedr · unnder
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "über" for "under" ever safe?
Frequency check: "über" vs "under" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "über" and "under" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "über" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "under" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #113,435 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "über" and "under" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "über vs Ubu". 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 #113,435 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.