kartvskatWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#16,467
“kart” frequency rank
#12,950
“kat” frequency rank
29417
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kart kat
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs karten Katze

Letter map: kart vs kat

Shared letters muted; letters that set kart and kat apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
kart
3 ch
kat

Role in the sentence - kart and kat

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: kart is averb and katanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29417, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kart is recorded at frequency rank #16,467, classified as averb, pronounced [kaʁt]. kat is at rank #12,950, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 29417, this pair ranks #1,767,184 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of kart vs kat

Shared letters: akt. Private to "kart": r. Private to "kat": -.

"kart" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "kat" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kartakrt · karrt · kartt · katr · kkart · krat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kart" for "kat" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kart" is a verb and "kat" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "kart" or "kat"?
"kat" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,950 in our German list, against #16,467 for "kart". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "kart" and "kat".

  • Full dictionary entry for "kart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,767,184 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kart" and "kat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "karge vs kart". 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 #1,767,184 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