DachesvsdachtenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#37,440
“Daches” frequency rank
#7,891
“dachten” frequency rank
45331
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Daches dachten
Definition Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Dach 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs denken

Where the eye mixes Daches and dachten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Daches runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against dachten's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Daches
7 ch
dachten

Why the eye confuses Daches with dachten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Daches is [ˈdaxəs] while dachten is [ˈdaxtn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45331, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Daches is recorded at frequency rank #37,440, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdaxəs]. 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 45331, this pair ranks #1,356,669 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Daches vs dachten

Shared letters: acdeh. Private to "Daches": s. Private to "dachten": nt.

"Daches" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "dachten" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Daches ← adches · dacches · dacehs · dachess · dachhes · dachse · dahces · dcahes
  • dachten ← adchten · dacchten · dachetn · dachhten · dachtenn · dachtne · dachtten · dacthen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Daches" for "dachten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Daches" is a noun and "dachten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Daches" or "dachten" show up more?
"dachten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,891 in our German list, against #37,440 for "Daches". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Daches" 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 #1,356,669 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Daches" and "dachten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Daches vs Dackel". 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 #1,356,669 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