GordonvstapesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#8,568
“Gordon” frequency rank
#41,496
“tapes” frequency rank
50064
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gordon tapes
Definition englischer männlicher Vorname 2. Person Singular Präsens Konjunktiv des Verbs tapar

Letter map: Gordon vs tapes

Shared letters muted; letters that set Gordon and tapes apart highlighted. No shared letter run. Gordon runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against tapes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Gordon
5 ch
tapes

Grammar separator: Gordon vs tapes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Gordon is aname and tapesaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gordon is recorded at frequency rank #8,568, classified as aname, pronounced […]. tapes is at rank #41,496, 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 50064, this pair ranks #1,187,974 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Gordon vs tapes

Shared letters: none. Private to "Gordon": dgnor. Private to "tapes": aepst.

"Gordon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "tapes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Gordon ← ggordon · godron · gorddon · gordno · gordonn · gorodn · gorrdon · grodon
  • tapes ← atpes · taeps · tapess · tappes · tapse · tpaes · ttapes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Gordon" for "tapes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gordon" is a name and "tapes" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Gordon" or "tapes" show up more?
"Gordon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,568 in our German list, against #41,496 for "tapes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Gordon" and "tapes". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gordon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tapes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,187,974 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gordon" and "tapes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tapes". 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 #1,187,974 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