BeckenvsbückenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#6,040
“Becken” frequency rank
#32,980
“bücken” frequency rank
39020
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Becken bücken
Definition derjenige Körperabschnitt, der unterhalb des Bauchs und oberhalb der Beine gelegen ist den Oberkörper tief in Richtung Boden beugen

Where the eye mixes Becken and bücken

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

6 ch
Becken
6 ch
bücken

Why the eye confuses Becken with bücken

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Becken is [ˈbɛkn̩] while bücken is [ˈbʏkn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “Becken” becomes ü in “bücken”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39020, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Becken is recorded at frequency rank #6,040, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbɛkn̩]. bücken is at rank #32,980, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈbʏkn̩].

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 39020, this pair ranks #1,548,307 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Becken vs bücken

Shared letters: bcekn. Private to "Becken": -. Private to "bücken": ü.

"Becken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "bücken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Becken ← bbecken · bceken · beccken · becekn · beckenn · beckken · beckne · bekcen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Becken" for "bücken" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Becken" is a noun and "bücken" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Becken" or "bücken" show up more?
"Becken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,040 in our German list, against #32,980 for "bücken". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Becken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bücken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,548,307 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Becken" and "bücken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bücken vs bucket". 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 #1,548,307 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