hockenvsHopfenConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#20,298
“hocken” frequency rank
#23,988
“Hopfen” frequency rank
44286
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hocken Hopfen
Definition mit stark angewinkelten Knien aufrecht sitzen der echte Hopfen, eine 5 m hohe Kletterpflanze, dient als Bitterstoff-Erzeuger in der Bierbrauerei

Where the eye mixes hocken and Hopfen

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

6 ch
hocken
6 ch
Hopfen

Visual trap between hocken and Hopfen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hocken is [ˈhɔkn̩] while Hopfen is [ˈhɔp͡fn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44286, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hocken is recorded at frequency rank #20,298, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhɔkn̩]. Hopfen is at rank #23,988, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɔp͡fn̩].

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 44286, this pair ranks #1,391,124 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hocken vs Hopfen

Shared letters: ehno. Private to "hocken": ck. Private to "Hopfen": fp.

"hocken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Hopfen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hocken ← hcoken · hhocken · hoccken · hocekn · hockenn · hockken · hockne · hokcen
  • Hopfen ← hhopfen · hofpen · hopefn · hopfenn · hopffen · hopfne · hoppfen · hpofen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hocken" and "Hopfen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hocken" is a verb and "Hopfen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "hocken" or "Hopfen" show up more?
"hocken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,298 in our German list, against #23,988 for "Hopfen". 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 "hocken" and "Hopfen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hocken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hopfen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,391,124 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hocken" and "Hopfen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hackern vs hocken". 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 #1,391,124 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