DeckvsdochWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Deck is a noun, doch is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Deck” is a noun and “doch” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,877
“Deck” frequency rank
#71
“doch” frequency rank
9948
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Deck doch
Definition Plattform über einem Schiffsraum, auch der Raum zwischen zwei Decks trotzdem, dennoch

Where the eye mixes Deck and doch

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

4 ch
Deck
4 ch
doch

Why the eye confuses Deck with doch

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Deck is [dɛk] while doch is [dɔx]. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Deck is recorded at frequency rank #9,877, classified as anoun, pronounced [dɛk]. doch is at rank #71, tagged as anadv, pronounced [dɔx].

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 9948, this pair ranks #1,977,504 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Deck vs doch

Shared letters: cd. Private to "Deck": ek. Private to "doch": ho.

"Deck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "doch" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Deckdcek · ddeck · decck · deckk · dekc · edck
  • dochdcoh · ddoch · docch · dochh · dohc · odch

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Deck" and "doch" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Deck" is a noun and "doch" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Deck" or "doch" show up more?
"doch" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #71 in our German list, against #9,877 for "Deck". 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 "Deck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "doch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,977,504 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Deck" and "doch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Deck vs Docks". 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 #1,977,504 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