KaivskeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,859
“Kai” frequency rank
#20,973
“ke” frequency rank
26832
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kai ke
Definition befestigtes Ufer in einem Hafen als Schiffsanlegeplatz 2. Person Singular Präsens Indikativ Nichtadmirativ Aktiv zum Verb kam

Letter map: Kai vs ke

Shared letters muted; letters that set Kai and ke apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
Kai
2 ch
ke

Part-of-speech tell for Kai / ke

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Kai is anoun and keaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26832, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kai is recorded at frequency rank #5,859, classified as anoun, pronounced [kaɪ̯]. ke is at rank #20,973, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 26832, this pair ranks #1,811,664 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Kai vs ke

Shared letters: k. Private to "Kai": ai. Private to "ke": e.

"Kai" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "ke" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Kai" for "ke" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Kai" is a noun and "ke" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Kai" vs "ke" - which ranks higher?
"Kai" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,859 in our German list, against #20,973 for "ke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Kai" and "ke". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,811,664 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kai" and "ke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ke vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,811,664 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