gucktevsGurkeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#48,198
“guckte” frequency rank
#20,945
“Gurke” frequency rank
69143
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature guckte Gurke
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs gucken eine Pflanzengattung in der Familie der Kürbisgewächse

Where the eye mixes guckte and Gurke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. guckte runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against Gurke's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
guckte
5 ch
Gurke

Look-alike desk: guckte vs Gurke

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: guckte is [ˈɡʊktə] while Gurke is [ˈɡʊʁkə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69143, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

guckte is recorded at frequency rank #48,198, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈɡʊktə]. Gurke is at rank #20,945, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡʊʁkə].

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 69143, this pair ranks #485,711 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of guckte vs Gurke

Shared letters: egku. Private to "guckte": ct. Private to "Gurke": r.

"guckte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "Gurke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guckte ← gcukte · gguckte · gucckte · gucket · guckkte · gucktte · guctke · gukcte
  • Gurke ← ggurke · gruke · gukre · gurek · gurkke · gurrke · ugrke

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "guckte" for "Gurke" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "guckte" is a verb and "Gurke" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "guckte" or "Gurke" show up more?
"Gurke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,945 in our German list, against #48,198 for "guckte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "guckte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gurke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #485,711 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "guckte" and "Gurke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "guckst vs guckte". 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 #485,711 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