campevscapTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#41,723
“campe” frequency rank
#10,059
“cap” frequency rank
51782
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature campe cap
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs campen Deckel, Haube

Where the eye mixes campe and cap

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
campe
3 ch
cap

Visual trap between campe and cap

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: campe is [ˈkɛmpə] while cap is [kæp]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51782, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

campe is recorded at frequency rank #41,723, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkɛmpə]. cap is at rank #10,059, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kæp].

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 51782, this pair ranks #1,122,230 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of campe vs cap

Shared letters: acp. Private to "campe": em. Private to "cap": -.

"campe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cap" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • campeacmpe · camep · cammpe · camppe · capme · ccampe · cmape

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "campe" for "cap" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "campe" is a verb and "cap" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "campe" or "cap" show up more?
"cap" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,059 in our German list, against #41,723 for "campe". 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 "campe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cap" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,122,230 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "campe" and "cap" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "campe vs capo". 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 #1,122,230 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