kargevsKartenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#49,815
“karge” frequency rank
#1,559
“Karten” frequency rank
51374
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature karge Karten
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs kargen Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Karte

Where the eye mixes karge and Karten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
karge
6 ch
Karten

Visual trap between karge and Karten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: karge is [ˈkaʁɡə] while Karten is [ˈkaʁtn̩]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51374, 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]. Karten is at rank #1,559, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaʁtn̩].

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 51374, this pair ranks #1,137,975 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of karge vs Karten

Shared letters: aekr. Private to "karge": g. Private to "Karten": nt.

"karge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Karten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kargeakrge · kagre · kareg · kargge · karrge · kkarge · krage
  • Kartenakrten · karetn · karrten · kartenn · kartne · kartten · katren · kkarten

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "karge" and "Karten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "karge" is a verb and "Karten" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "karge" or "Karten"?
"Karten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,559 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "karge" and "Karten" 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 "Karten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,137,975 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "karge" and "Karten" 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 #1,137,975 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