dehnenvsDeppenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#26,818
“dehnen” frequency rank
#14,040
“Deppen” frequency rank
40858
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dehnen Deppen
Definition etwas ausweiten, strecken, vergrößern Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Depp

Where the eye mixes dehnen and Deppen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. dehnen and Deppen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
dehnen
6 ch
Deppen

Look-alike desk: dehnen vs Deppen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dehnen is [ˈdeːnən] while Deppen is [ˈdɛpn̩]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40858, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dehnen is recorded at frequency rank #26,818, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈdeːnən]. Deppen is at rank #14,040, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdɛpn̩].

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 40858, this pair ranks #1,496,275 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dehnen vs Deppen

Shared letters: den. Private to "dehnen": h. Private to "Deppen": p.

"dehnen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Deppen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dehnen ← ddehnen · dehenn · dehhnen · dehnenn · dehnne · dehnnen · denhen · dhenen
  • Deppen ← ddeppen · depen · depepn · deppenn · deppne · dpepen · edppen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dehnen" for "Deppen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dehnen" is a verb and "Deppen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dehnen" vs "Deppen" - which ranks higher?
"Deppen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,040 in our German list, against #26,818 for "dehnen". 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 "dehnen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Deppen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,496,275 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dehnen" and "Deppen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dehnen vs Dehnung". 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 #1,496,275 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