DächernvsdachtenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#20,563
“Dächern” frequency rank
#7,891
“dachten” frequency rank
28454
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Dächern dachten
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Dach 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs denken

Where the eye mixes Dächern and dachten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Dächern
7 ch
dachten

Why the eye confuses Dächern with dachten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Dächern is [ˈdɛçɐn] while dachten is [ˈdaxtn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28454, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Dächern is recorded at frequency rank #20,563, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdɛçɐn]. dachten is at rank #7,891, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈdaxtn̩].

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 28454, this pair ranks #1,784,480 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Dächern vs dachten

Shared letters: cdehn. Private to "Dächern": . Private to "dachten": at.

"Dächern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "dachten" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dachtenadchten · dacchten · dachetn · dachhten · dachtenn · dachtne · dachtten · dacthen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Dächern" and "dachten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Dächern" is a noun and "dachten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Dächern" vs "dachten" - which ranks higher?
"dachten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,891 in our German list, against #20,563 for "Dächern". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Dächern" and "dachten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Dächern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dachten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,784,480 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Dächern" and "dachten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dächern vs Dichtern". 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 #1,784,480 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