dangervsdankenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#41,735
“danger” frequency rank
#4,780
“danken” frequency rank
46515
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature danger danken
Definition Gefahr, Bedrohung seinen Dank aussprechen oder seine Dankbarkeit durch Taten äußern

Where the eye mixes danger and danken

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

6 ch
danger
6 ch
danken

Why the eye confuses danger with danken

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: danger is [ˈdeɪndʒə] while danken is [ˈdaŋkn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 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 46515, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

danger is recorded at frequency rank #41,735, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdeɪndʒə]. danken is at rank #4,780, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈdaŋkn̩].

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 46515, this pair ranks #1,316,399 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of danger vs danken

Shared letters: aden. Private to "danger": gr. Private to "danken": k.

"danger" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "danken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dangeradnger · dagner · danegr · dangerr · dangger · dangre · dannger · ddanger
  • dankenadnken · daknen · danekn · dankenn · dankken · dankne · dannken · ddanken

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "danger" for "danken" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "danger" is a noun and "danken" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "danger" vs "danken" - which ranks higher?
"danken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,780 in our German list, against #41,735 for "danger". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "danger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "danken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,316,399 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "danger" and "danken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Däne vs danger". 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 #1,316,399 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