auskenntvsAuskunftWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#19,827
“auskennt” frequency rank
#4,682
“Auskunft” frequency rank
24509
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature auskennt Auskunft
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv der Nebensatzkonjugation des Verbs auskennen eine Information; eine Angabe über etwas

Where the eye mixes auskennt and Auskunft

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. auskennt and Auskunft follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VVCCVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
auskennt
8 ch
Auskunft

Look-alike desk: auskennt vs Auskunft

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: auskennt is [ˈaʊ̯sˌkɛnt] while Auskunft is [ˈaʊ̯sˌkʊnft]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24509, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

auskennt is recorded at frequency rank #19,827, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯sˌkɛnt]. Auskunft is at rank #4,682, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯sˌkʊnft].

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 24509, this pair ranks #1,846,603 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of auskennt vs Auskunft

Shared letters: aknstu. Private to "auskennt": e. Private to "Auskunft": f.

"auskennt" · 8 letters · shape VVCCVCCC  ·  "Auskunft" · 8 letters · shape VVCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • auskenntasukennt · auksennt · auseknnt · auskenntt · auskent · auskentn · auskkennt · ausknent
  • Auskunftasukunft · auksunft · auskkunft · ausknuft · auskufnt · auskunfft · auskunftt · auskunnft

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "auskennt" for "Auskunft" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "auskennt" is a verb and "Auskunft" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "auskennt" vs "Auskunft" - which ranks higher?
"Auskunft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,682 in our German list, against #19,827 for "auskennt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "auskennt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Auskunft" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,846,603 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "auskennt" and "Auskunft" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "auskennen vs auskennt". 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 #1,846,603 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