KarvskargeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#40,626
“Kar” frequency rank
#49,815
“karge” frequency rank
90441
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kar karge
Definition kesselförmige Eintiefung an einem Berghang mit flachem Boden und steilen Rückwänden 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs kargen

Where the eye mixes Kar and karge

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Kar runs 3 letters (CVC) against karge's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
Kar
5 ch
karge

Visual trap between Kar and karge

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Kar is [kaːɐ̯] while karge is [ˈkaʁɡə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Kar” sits inside “karge”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90441, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kar is recorded at frequency rank #40,626, classified as anoun, pronounced [kaːɐ̯]. karge is at rank #49,815, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkaʁɡə].

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 90441, this pair ranks #46,984 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Kar vs karge

Shared letters: akr. Private to "Kar": -. Private to "karge": eg.

"Kar" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "karge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • karge ← akrge · kagre · kareg · kargge · karrge · kkarge · krage

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Kar" and "karge" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Kar" is a noun and "karge" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Kar" or "karge"?
"Kar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,626 in our German list, against #49,815 for "karge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "karge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,984 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kar" and "karge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "karge vs Kartei". 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 #46,984 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