kal vs ke, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#37,602
“kal” frequency rank: #20,973
“ke” frequency rank: 58575
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	kal	ke
Definition	kalt	2. Person Singular Präsens Indikativ Nichtadmirativ Aktiv zum Verb kam

Letter map: kal vs ke

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

3 ch

kal

2 ch

Role in the sentence - kal and ke

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: kal is anadjective and keaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58575, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kal is recorded at frequency rank #37,602, classified as anadj, pronounced [kal]. 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 58575, this pair ranks #857,533 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kal vs ke

Shared letters: k. Private to "kal": al. Private to "ke": e.

"kal" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "ke" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kal" for "ke" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kal" is an adjective and "ke" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "kal" vs "ke" - which ranks higher?

"ke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,973 in our German list, against #37,602 for "kal". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "kal" and "ke".

Full dictionary entry for "kal" 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 #857,533 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"kal" and "ke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kal vs kola". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #857,533 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.