checksvsetTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#35,692
“checks” frequency rank
#1,447
“et” frequency rank
37139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature checks et
Definition Plural des Substantivs check Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs eat

Letter map: checks vs et

Shared letters muted; letters that set checks and et apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

6 ch
checks
2 ch
et

Part-of-speech tell for checks / et

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: checks is anoun and etaverb. On the page they differ by 4 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

checks is recorded at frequency rank #35,692, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. et is at rank #1,447, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 37139, this pair ranks #1,597,838 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of checks vs et

Shared letters: e. Private to "checks": chks. Private to "et": t.

"checks" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "et" · 2 letters · shape VC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • checkscchecks · cehcks · chceks · checcks · checkks · checkss · checsk · chekcs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "checks" and "et" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "checks" is a noun and "et" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "checks" vs "et" - which ranks higher?
"et" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,447 in our German list, against #35,692 for "checks". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "checks" and "et".

  • Full dictionary entry for "checks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "et" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,597,838 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "checks" and "et" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "checks vs puzzles". 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 #1,597,838 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