kackenvskargenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,624
“kacken” frequency rank
#40,627
“kargen” frequency rank
58251
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kacken kargen
Definition seinen Darm entleeren mit etwas geizen, es nicht gerne teilen oder verschenken

Where the eye mixes kacken and kargen

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

6 ch
kacken
6 ch
kargen

Look-alike desk: kacken vs kargen

A purely visual mix-up. kacken ([ˈkakn̩]) and kargen ([ˈkaʁɡn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58251, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kacken is recorded at frequency rank #17,624, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkakn̩]. kargen is at rank #40,627, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkaʁɡn̩].

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 58251, this pair ranks #870,018 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kacken vs kargen

Shared letters: aekn. Private to "kacken": c. Private to "kargen": gr.

"kacken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "kargen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kacken ← akcken · kaccken · kacekn · kackenn · kackken · kackne · kakcen · kcaken
  • kargen ← akrgen · kagren · karegn · kargenn · karggen · kargne · karrgen · kkargen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kacken" for "kargen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkakn̩] versus [ˈkaʁɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "kacken" or "kargen" show up more?
"kacken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,624 in our German list, against #40,627 for "kargen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "kacken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kargen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #870,018 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kacken" and "kargen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "karge vs kargen". 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 #870,018 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