HackernvsheckenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#46,715
“Hackern” frequency rank
#21,640
“hecken” frequency rank
68355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hackern hecken
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Hacker etwas ausbrüten, hervorbringen (auch in großer Anzahl), mehr werden (besonders bei Geld)

Where the eye mixes Hackern and hecken

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Hackern
6 ch
hecken

Look-alike desk: Hackern vs hecken

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hackern is [ˈhakɐn] while hecken is [ˈhɛkn̩]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hackern is recorded at frequency rank #46,715, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhakɐn]. hecken is at rank #21,640, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhɛkn̩].

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 68355, this pair ranks #510,388 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Hackern vs hecken

Shared letters: cehkn. Private to "Hackern": ar. Private to "hecken": -.

"Hackern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "hecken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hackernahckern · hacckern · hacekrn · hackenr · hackernn · hackerrn · hackkern · hackren
  • heckenehcken · hceken · heccken · hecekn · heckenn · heckken · heckne · hekcen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Hackern" and "hecken" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hackern" is a noun and "hecken" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Hackern" or "hecken" show up more?
"hecken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,640 in our German list, against #46,715 for "Hackern". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Hackern" and "hecken" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hackern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hecken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #510,388 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hackern" and "hecken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hackern vs häkeln". 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 #510,388 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