Which to use
“dank” is a preposition and “danken” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #406
- “dank” frequency rank
- #4,780
- “danken” frequency rank
- 5186
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dank | danken |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | durch etwas oder jemanden; aufgrund etwas oder jemandes | seinen Dank aussprechen oder seine Dankbarkeit durch Taten äußern |
Where the eye mixes dank and danken
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. dank runs 4 letters (CVCC) against danken's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: dank vs danken
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dank is [daŋk] while danken is [ˈdaŋkn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “dank” sits inside “danken”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5186, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dank is recorded at frequency rank #406, classified as aprep, pronounced [daŋk]. 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 5186, this pair ranks #1,995,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dank vs danken
Shared letters: adkn. Private to "dank": -. Private to "danken": e.
"dank" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "danken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dank" and "danken" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "dank" or "danken" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "dank" 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 #1,995,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dank" and "danken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "danken vs donkey". 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 #1,995,545 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.