JeckenvsjuckenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#36,431
“Jecken” frequency rank
#22,391
“jucken” frequency rank
58822
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Jecken jucken
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Jeck einen unangenehmen, stechenden Reiz (meist auf der Haut) verursachen, den man durch Kratzen beseitigen möchte

Where the eye mixes Jecken and jucken

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Jecken and jucken follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Jecken
6 ch
jucken

Visual trap between Jecken and jucken

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Jecken is [ˈjɛkn̩] while jucken is [ˈjʊkn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “Jecken” becomes u in “jucken”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58822, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Jecken is recorded at frequency rank #36,431, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈjɛkn̩]. jucken is at rank #22,391, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈjʊkn̩].

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 58822, this pair ranks #848,001 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Jecken vs jucken

Shared letters: cejkn. Private to "Jecken": -. Private to "jucken": u.

"Jecken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "jucken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Jecken ← ejcken · jceken · jeccken · jecekn · jeckenn · jeckken · jeckne · jekcen
  • jucken ← jcuken · jjucken · juccken · jucekn · juckenn · juckken · juckne · jukcen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Jecken" and "jucken" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Jecken" is a noun and "jucken" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Jecken" or "jucken" show up more?
"jucken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,391 in our German list, against #36,431 for "Jecken". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Jecken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "jucken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #848,001 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Jecken" and "jucken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Jecken vs Jockey". 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 #848,001 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