dankvsdassWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dank is a preposition, dass is a conjunction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dank” is a preposition and “dass” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#406
“dank” frequency rank
#27
“dass” frequency rank
433
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dank dass
Definition durch etwas oder jemanden; aufgrund etwas oder jemandes drückt eine Folge des Geschehens aus, Art und Weise oder Grad

Where the eye mixes dank and dass

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dank
4 ch
dass

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dank is [daŋk] while dass is [das]. 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 (preposition vs conjunction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 433, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dank is recorded at frequency rank #406, classified as aprep, pronounced [daŋk]. dass is at rank #27, tagged as aconj, pronounced [das].

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 433, this pair ranks #2,005,866 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dank vs dass

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dank": kn. Private to "dass": s.

"dank" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "dass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dankadnk · dakn · dankk · dannk · ddank · dnak
  • dassadss · daß · ddass · dsas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dank" and "dass" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dank" is a preposition and "dass" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dank" or "dass"?
"dass" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27 in our German list, against #406 for "dank". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list