kargenvsKatzenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#40,627
“kargen” frequency rank
#3,325
“Katzen” frequency rank
43952
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes kargen and Katzen

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

6 ch
kargen
6 ch
Katzen

Look-alike desk: kargen vs Katzen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: kargen is [ˈkaʁɡn̩] while Katzen is [ˈkat͡sn̩]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kargen is recorded at frequency rank #40,627, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkaʁɡn̩]. Katzen is at rank #3,325, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkat͡sn̩].

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 43952, this pair ranks #1,401,815 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kargen vs Katzen

Shared letters: aekn. Private to "kargen": gr. Private to "Katzen": tz.

"kargen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Katzen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kargen ← akrgen · kagren · karegn · kargenn · karggen · kargne · karrgen · kkargen
  • Katzen ← aktzen · katezn · kattzen · katzenn · katzne · katzzen · kazten · kkatzen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kargen" for "Katzen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kargen" is a verb and "Katzen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "kargen" or "Katzen" show up more?
"Katzen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,325 in our German list, against #40,627 for "kargen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "kargen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Katzen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,401,815 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kargen" and "Katzen" 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 #1,401,815 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