AknevsanWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Akne is a noun, an is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#30,905
“Akne” frequency rank
#26
“an” frequency rank
30931
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Akne an
Definition krankhafte Veränderung der Haut mit Bildung entzündlicher Pusteln bestimmt ein Ziel, einen Zielpunkt, mit welchem etw. in Berührung kommt

Where the eye mixes Akne and an

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Akne
2 ch
an

Why the eye confuses Akne with an

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Akne is [ˈaknə] while an is [an]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30931, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Akne is recorded at frequency rank #30,905, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaknə]. an is at rank #26, tagged as aprep, pronounced [an].

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 30931, this pair ranks #1,738,179 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Akne vs an

Shared letters: an. Private to "Akne": ek. Private to "an": -.

"Akne" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "an" · 2 letters · shape VC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Akneaken · akkne

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Akne" for "an" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Akne" is a noun and "an" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Akne" vs "an" - which ranks higher?
"an" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26 in our German list, against #30,905 for "Akne". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Akne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "an" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,738,179 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Akne" and "an" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Akne 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 #1,738,179 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