KappenvskargenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#27,368
“Kappen” frequency rank
#40,627
“kargen” frequency rank
67995
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kappen kargen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Kappe mit etwas geizen, es nicht gerne teilen oder verschenken

Where the eye mixes Kappen and kargen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Kappen 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
Kappen
6 ch
kargen

Visual trap between Kappen and kargen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Kappen is [ˈkapn̩] while kargen is [ˈkaʁɡn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67995, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kappen is recorded at frequency rank #27,368, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkapn̩]. 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 67995, this pair ranks #522,102 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Kappen vs kargen

Shared letters: aekn. Private to "Kappen": p. Private to "kargen": gr.

"Kappen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "kargen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Kappen ← akppen · kapen · kapepn · kappenn · kappne · kkappen · kpapen
  • kargen ← akrgen · kagren · karegn · kargenn · karggen · kargne · karrgen · kkargen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Kappen" and "kargen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Kappen" is a noun and "kargen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Kappen" or "kargen" show up more?
"Kappen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,368 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.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kappen" 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 #522,102 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kappen" 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 #522,102 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