DüsenvsduzenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#36,893
“Düsen” frequency rank
#35,717
“duzen” frequency rank
72610
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Düsen duzen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Düse mit du anreden

Where the eye mixes Düsen and duzen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Düsen and duzen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Düsen
5 ch
duzen

Look-alike desk: Düsen vs duzen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Düsen is [ˈdyːzn̩] while duzen is [ˈduːt͡sn̩]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72610, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Düsen is recorded at frequency rank #36,893, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdyːzn̩]. duzen is at rank #35,717, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈduːt͡sn̩].

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 72610, this pair ranks #383,498 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Düsen vs duzen

Shared letters: den. Private to "Düsen": sü. Private to "duzen": uz.

"Düsen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "duzen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • duzen ← dduzen · duezn · duzenn · duzne · duzzen · dzuen · udzen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Düsen" for "duzen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Düsen" is a noun and "duzen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Düsen" vs "duzen" - which ranks higher?
"duzen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,717 in our German list, against #36,893 for "Düsen". 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 "Düsen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duzen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #383,498 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Düsen" and "duzen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dusch vs Düsen". 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 #383,498 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