häkelnvshauenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“häkeln” and “hauen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#39,432
“häkeln” frequency rank
#7,187
“hauen” frequency rank
46619
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature häkeln hauen
Definition einen Faden mit Hilfe einer Häkelnadel zu zusammenhängenden Maschen verknüpfen einen oder mehrere Schläge mit der Faust / den Fäusten versetzen

Where the eye mixes häkeln and hauen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
häkeln
5 ch
hauen

Visual trap between häkeln and hauen

A purely visual mix-up. häkeln ([ˈhɛːkl̩n]) and hauen ([ˈhaʊ̯ən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46619, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

häkeln is recorded at frequency rank #39,432, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhɛːkl̩n]. hauen is at rank #7,187, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhaʊ̯ən].

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 46619, this pair ranks #1,312,901 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of häkeln vs hauen

Shared letters: ehn. Private to "häkeln": klä. Private to "hauen": au.

"häkeln" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "hauen" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hauenahuen · haeun · hauenn · haune · hhauen · huaen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "häkeln" and "hauen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhɛːkl̩n] versus [ˈhaʊ̯ən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "häkeln" or "hauen" show up more?
"hauen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,187 in our German list, against #39,432 for "häkeln". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "häkeln" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hauen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,312,901 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "häkeln" and "hauen" 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 #1,312,901 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