AffevsAffektWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Affe” and “Affekt” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,017
“Affe” frequency rank
#37,944
“Affekt” frequency rank
49961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Affe Affekt
Definition Säugetier aus der Unterordnung Anthropoidea in der Ordnung der Primaten heftige Gefühlsregung, starke Gemütsbewegung, innere Erregung

Where the eye mixes Affe and Affekt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Affe runs 4 letters (VCCV) against Affekt's 6 (VCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Affe
6 ch
Affekt

Visual trap between Affe and Affekt

A purely visual mix-up. Affe ([ˈafə]) and Affekt ([aˈfɛkt]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “Affe” sits inside “Affekt”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Affe is recorded at frequency rank #12,017, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈafə]. Affekt is at rank #37,944, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aˈfɛkt].

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 49961, this pair ranks #1,191,884 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Affe vs Affekt

Shared letters: aef. Private to "Affe": -. Private to "Affekt": kt.

"Affe" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "Affekt" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Affe ← afe · afef · fafe
  • Affekt ← afefkt · afekt · affekkt · affektt · affetk · affket · fafekt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Affe" for "Affekt" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈafə] versus [aˈfɛkt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Affe" vs "Affekt" - which ranks higher?
"Affe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,017 in our German list, against #37,944 for "Affekt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Affe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Affekt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,191,884 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Affe" and "Affekt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Affe vs Atze". 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 #1,191,884 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