HändevsHundWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,453
“Hände” frequency rank
#1,184
“Hund” frequency rank
2637
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hände Hund
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Hand Haustier, dessen Vorfahre der Wolf ist

Where the eye mixes Hände and Hund

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Hände runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against Hund's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Hände
4 ch
Hund

Why the eye confuses Hände with Hund

A purely visual mix-up. Hände ([ˈhɛndə]) and Hund ([hʊnt]) 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 2637, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hände is recorded at frequency rank #1,453, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɛndə]. Hund is at rank #1,184, tagged as anoun, pronounced [hʊnt].

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 2637, this pair ranks #2,001,909 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Hände vs Hund

Shared letters: dhn. Private to "Hände": eä. Private to "Hund": u.

"Hände" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Hund" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hund ← hhund · hnud · hudn · hundd · hunnd · uhnd

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hände" for "Hund" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhɛndə] versus [hʊnt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Hände" vs "Hund" - which ranks higher?
"Hund" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,184 in our German list, against #1,453 for "Hände". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hände" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hund" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,001,909 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hände" and "Hund" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hähne vs Hände". 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 #2,001,909 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