duftevsdukeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dufte is a adjective, duke is a particle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dufte” is an adjective and “duke” is a particle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,433
“dufte” frequency rank
#13,578
“duke” frequency rank
56011
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dufte duke
Definition sehr gut -

Letter map: dufte vs duke

Shared letters muted; letters that set dufte and duke apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. dufte runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against duke's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
dufte
4 ch
duke

Role in the sentence - dufte and duke

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dufte is anadjective and dukeaparticle. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56011, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dufte is recorded at frequency rank #42,433, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈdʊftə]. duke is at rank #13,578, tagged as aparticle, pronounced […].

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 56011, this pair ranks #957,114 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dufte vs duke

Shared letters: deu. Private to "dufte": ft. Private to "duke": k.

"dufte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "duke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dufte ← ddufte · dfute · dufet · duffte · dutfe · udfte
  • duke ← dduke · dkue · duek · dukke · udke

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dufte" and "duke" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dufte" is an adjective and "duke" a particle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "dufte" or "duke" show up more?
"duke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,578 in our German list, against #42,433 for "dufte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "dufte" and "duke". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dufte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #957,114 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dufte" and "duke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dufte 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 #957,114 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