BänkevsblankeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Bänke is a noun, blanke is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#21,561
“Bänke” frequency rank
#24,273
“blanke” frequency rank
45834
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Bänke blanke
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Bank Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs blank

Where the eye mixes Bänke and blanke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Bänke
6 ch
blanke

Why the eye confuses Bänke with blanke

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Bänke is [ˈbɛŋkə] while blanke is [ˈblaŋkə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45834, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bänke is recorded at frequency rank #21,561, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbɛŋkə]. blanke is at rank #24,273, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈblaŋkə].

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 45834, this pair ranks #1,339,694 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Bänke vs blanke

Shared letters: bekn. Private to "Bänke": ä. Private to "blanke": al.

"Bänke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "blanke" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blankebalnke · bblanke · blakne · blanek · blankke · blannke · bllanke · blnake

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Bänke" for "blanke" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Bänke" is a noun and "blanke" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Bänke" or "blanke" show up more?
"Bänke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,561 in our German list, against #24,273 for "blanke". 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 "Bänke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blanke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,339,694 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bänke" and "blanke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bänke vs bonne". 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 #1,339,694 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