kargevsKarteTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#49,815
“karge” frequency rank
#1,203
“Karte” frequency rank
51018
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature karge Karte
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs kargen ein handlicher, planer, steifer aber nicht starrer, meist rechteckiger Gegenstand aus Karton, Pappe, Papier, Kunststoff, allenfalls Holz oder Metall

Where the eye mixes karge and Karte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. karge and Karte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
karge
5 ch
Karte

Look-alike desk: karge vs Karte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: karge is [ˈkaʁɡə] while Karte is [ˈkaʁtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - g in “karge” becomes t in “Karte”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51018, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

karge is recorded at frequency rank #49,815, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkaʁɡə]. Karte is at rank #1,203, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaʁtə].

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 51018, this pair ranks #1,151,625 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of karge vs Karte

Shared letters: aekr. Private to "karge": g. Private to "Karte": t.

"karge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Karte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • karge ← akrge · kagre · kareg · kargge · karrge · kkarge · krage
  • Karte ← akrte · karet · karrte · kartte · katre · kkarte · krate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "karge" and "Karte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "karge" is a verb and "Karte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "karge" vs "Karte" - which ranks higher?
"Karte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,203 in our German list, against #49,815 for "karge". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "karge" and "Karte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "karge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Karte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,151,625 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "karge" and "Karte" 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 #1,151,625 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