HippevsHoppeTell them apart

Quick tell: Hippe is a noun, Hoppe is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Hippe” is a noun and “Hoppe” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,897
“Hippe” frequency rank
#19,256
“Hoppe” frequency rank
61153
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hippe Hoppe
Definition Messer mit sichelförmig geschwungener Klinge, das zum Beispiel zum Abschneiden von Ästen benutzt wird, teilweise als Klappmesser ausgeführt deutschsprachiger Familienname, Nachname

Where the eye mixes Hippe and Hoppe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Hippe and Hoppe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Hippe
5 ch
Hoppe

Look-alike desk: Hippe vs Hoppe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hippe is [ˈhɪpə] while Hoppe is [ˈhɔpə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “Hippe” becomes o in “Hoppe”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61153, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hippe is recorded at frequency rank #41,897, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɪpə]. Hoppe is at rank #19,256, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈhɔpə].

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 61153, this pair ranks #760,377 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hippe vs Hoppe

Shared letters: ehp. Private to "Hippe": i. Private to "Hoppe": o.

"Hippe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Hoppe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hippe ← hhippe · hipe · hipep · hpipe · ihppe
  • Hoppe ← hhoppe · hopep · hpope · ohppe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hippe" for "Hoppe" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hippe" is a noun and "Hoppe" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Hippe" vs "Hoppe" - which ranks higher?
"Hoppe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,256 in our German list, against #41,897 for "Hippe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hippe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hoppe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #760,377 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hippe" and "Hoppe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hide vs Hippe". 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 #760,377 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