changevschaseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“change” and “chase” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,443
“change” frequency rank
#20,547
“chase” frequency rank
30990
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature change chase
Definition Veränderung die Jagd, die Hetzjagd

Where the eye mixes change and chase

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

6 ch
change
5 ch
chase

Visual trap between change and chase

A purely visual mix-up. change ([tʃeɪnd͡ʒ]) and chase ([tʃeɪs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

change is recorded at frequency rank #10,443, classified as anoun, pronounced [tʃeɪnd͡ʒ]. chase is at rank #20,547, tagged as anoun, pronounced [tʃeɪs].

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 30990, this pair ranks #1,736,962 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of change vs chase

Shared letters: aceh. Private to "change": gn. Private to "chase": s.

"change" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "chase" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • changecahnge · cchange · chagne · chaneg · changge · channge · chhange · chnage
  • chasecchase · chaes · chasse · chhase · chsae · hcase

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "change" and "chase" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([tʃeɪnd͡ʒ] versus [tʃeɪs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "change" or "chase" show up more?
"change" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,443 in our German list, against #20,547 for "chase". 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 "change" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chase" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,736,962 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "change" and "chase" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chair vs chase". 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 #1,736,962 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