DatenvsdaveWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“Daten” and “dave” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#808
“Daten” frequency rank
#9,876
“dave” frequency rank
10684
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Daten dave
Definition Sammlung ermittelter/gewonnener Messwerte oder auch statistischer Angaben zu etwas Vokativ Singular des Substantivs dav

Where the eye mixes Daten and dave

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Daten runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against dave's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Daten
4 ch
dave

Visual trap between Daten and dave

A purely visual mix-up. Daten ([ˈdaːtn̩]) and dave ([ˈdavɛ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10684, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Daten is recorded at frequency rank #808, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdaːtn̩]. dave is at rank #9,876, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdavɛ].

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 10684, this pair ranks #1,973,874 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Daten vs dave

Shared letters: ade. Private to "Daten": nt. Private to "dave": v.

"Daten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "dave" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Datenadten · daetn · datenn · datne · datten · ddaten · dtaen
  • daveadve · daev · davve · ddave · dvae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Daten" and "dave" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdaːtn̩] versus [ˈdavɛ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Daten" or "dave" show up more?
"Daten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #808 in our German list, against #9,876 for "dave". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Daten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dave" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,973,874 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Daten" and "dave" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dave 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 #1,973,874 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