denvsDüsenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: den is a unknown, Düsen is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“den” is an unknown and “Düsen” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10
“den” frequency rank
#36,893
“Düsen” frequency rank
36903
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature den Düsen
Definition Akkusativ Singular Maskulinum des bestimmten Artikels der Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Düse

Where the eye mixes den and Düsen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
den
5 ch
Düsen

Visual trap between den and Düsen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: den is [deːn] while Düsen is [ˈdyːzn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

den is recorded at frequency rank #10, classified as anunknown, pronounced [deːn]. Düsen is at rank #36,893, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdyːzn̩].

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 36903, this pair ranks #1,603,760 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of den vs Düsen

Shared letters: den. Private to "den": -. Private to "Düsen": .

"den" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Düsen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "den" and "Düsen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "den" is an unknown and "Düsen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "den" or "Düsen" show up more?
"den" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10 in our German list, against #36,893 for "Düsen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "den" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Düsen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,603,760 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "den" and "Düsen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dusch vs Düsen". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,603,760 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