DenisvsdenkeTell them apart

Quick tell: Denis is a name, denke is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Denis” is a name and “denke” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,632
“Denis” frequency rank
#475
“denke” frequency rank
11107
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Denis denke
Definition französischer männlicher Vorname 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs denken

Where the eye mixes Denis and denke

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

5 ch
Denis
5 ch
denke

Visual trap between Denis and denke

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Denis is [dəˈni] while denke is [ˈdɛŋkə]. 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 (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11107, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Denis is recorded at frequency rank #10,632, classified as aname, pronounced [dəˈni]. denke is at rank #475, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈdɛŋkə].

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 11107, this pair ranks #1,971,659 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Denis vs denke

Shared letters: den. Private to "Denis": is. Private to "denke": k.

"Denis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "denke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Denisddenis · deniss · dennis · densi · dneis · ednis
  • denkeddenke · dekne · denek · denkke · dennke · dneke · ednke

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Denis" and "denke" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Denis" is a name and "denke" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Denis" or "denke" show up more?
"denke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #475 in our German list, against #10,632 for "Denis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Denis" and "denke" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Denis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "denke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,971,659 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Denis" and "denke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Denis vs dess". 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 #1,971,659 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