KantevskonnteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#11,076
“Kante” frequency rank
#214
“konnte” frequency rank
11290
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kante konnte
Definition scharfer Rand, daher auch der Besatz an Stoffen, Kleidern 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs können

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Kante and konnte apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
Kante
6 ch
konnte

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Kante is [ˈkantə] while konnte is [ˈkɔntə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11290, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kante is recorded at frequency rank #11,076, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkantə]. konnte is at rank #214, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkɔntə].

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 11290, this pair ranks #1,970,653 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Kante vs konnte

Shared letters: eknt. Private to "Kante": a. Private to "konnte": o.

"Kante" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "konnte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Kanteaknte · kanet · kantte · katne · kkante · knate
  • konntekkonnte · knonte · konnet · konntte · konte · kontne · oknnte

Frequency comparison

Kante#11,076
konnte#214

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Kante" and "konnte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Kante" is a noun and "konnte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Kante" or "konnte"?
"konnte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #214 in our German list, against #11,076 for "Kante". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering Kante vs konnte

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “Kante”; for a verb, it's “konnte”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Kante” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list