HasenvshattenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#10,487
“Hasen” frequency rank
#278
“hatten” frequency rank
10765
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hasen hatten
Definition Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Hase 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum des Verbs haben

Where the eye mixes Hasen and hatten

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

5 ch
Hasen
6 ch
hatten

Why the eye confuses Hasen with hatten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hasen is [ˈhaːzn̩] while hatten is [ˈhatn̩]. 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 10765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hasen is recorded at frequency rank #10,487, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaːzn̩]. hatten is at rank #278, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhatn̩].

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 10765, this pair ranks #1,973,430 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Hasen vs hatten

Shared letters: aehn. Private to "Hasen": s. Private to "hatten": t.

"Hasen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hatten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hasenahsen · haesn · hasenn · hasne · hhasen · hsaen
  • hattenahtten · haten · hatetn · hattenn · hattne · hhatten · htaten

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Hasen" and "hatten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hasen" is a noun and "hatten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Hasen" or "hatten"?
"hatten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #278 in our German list, against #10,487 for "Hasen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hasen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hatten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,973,430 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hasen" and "hatten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hasen vs haze". 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 #1,973,430 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