Which to use
“dance” is a verb and “danke” is a particle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,780
- “dance” frequency rank
- #212
- “danke” frequency rank
- 6992
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dance | danke |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | tanzen | Wort, das man benutzt, um seinen Dank auszudrücken |
Where the eye mixes dance and danke
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between dance and danke
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dance is [dɑːns] while danke is [ˈdaŋkə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - c in “dance” becomes k in “danke”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs particle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6992, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dance is recorded at frequency rank #6,780, classified as averb, pronounced [dɑːns]. danke is at rank #212, tagged as aparticle, pronounced [ˈdaŋkə].
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 6992, this pair ranks #1,989,767 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dance vs danke
Shared letters: aden. Private to "dance": c. Private to "danke": k.
"dance" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "danke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dance" and "danke" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "dance" or "danke" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "danke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,989,767 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dance" and "danke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dance vs Düne". 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 #1,989,767 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.