AbgabenvsabhakenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#8,979
“Abgaben” frequency rank
#32,894
“abhaken” frequency rank
41873
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Abgaben abhaken
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Abgabe mit einem Häkchen versehen

Where the eye mixes Abgaben and abhaken

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Abgaben and abhaken follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
Abgaben
7 ch
abhaken

Visual trap between Abgaben and abhaken

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Abgaben is [ˈapˌɡaːbn̩] while abhaken is [ˈapˌhaːkn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41873, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Abgaben is recorded at frequency rank #8,979, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈapˌɡaːbn̩]. abhaken is at rank #32,894, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈapˌhaːkn̩].

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 41873, this pair ranks #1,466,505 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Abgaben vs abhaken

Shared letters: aben. Private to "Abgaben": g. Private to "abhaken": hk.

"Abgaben" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "abhaken" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Abgaben ← abagben · abbgaben · abgabben · abgabenn · abgabne · abgaebn · abgbaen · abggaben
  • abhaken ← abahken · abbhaken · abhaekn · abhakenn · abhakken · abhakne · abhhaken · abhkaen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Abgaben" for "abhaken" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Abgaben" is a noun and "abhaken" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Abgaben" or "abhaken" show up more?
"Abgaben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,979 in our German list, against #32,894 for "abhaken". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Abgaben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "abhaken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,466,505 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Abgaben" and "abhaken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abhaken vs abraten". 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 #1,466,505 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