Which to use
“family” is a noun and “known” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,759
- “family” frequency rank
- #40,645
- “known” frequency rank
- 48404
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | family | known |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Familie | Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs know |
Letter map: family vs known
Shared letters muted; letters that set family and known apart highlighted. No shared letter run. family runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against known's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - family and known
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: family is anoun and knownaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48404, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
family is recorded at frequency rank #7,759, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. known is at rank #40,645, tagged as averb, 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 48404, this pair ranks #1,249,772 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of family vs known
Shared letters: none. Private to "family": afilmy. Private to "known": know.
"family" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "known" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "family" and "known" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "family" or "known" show up more?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "family" and "known".
- Full dictionary entry for "family" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "known" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,249,772 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "family" and "known" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "known vs puzzles". 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 #1,249,772 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.