KeimenvskommenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#33,144
“Keimen” frequency rank
#181
“kommen” frequency rank
33325
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Keimen kommen
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Keim einen Ort erreichen, sich von einem Ort hierher begeben

Where the eye mixes Keimen and kommen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Keimen (CVVCVC) and kommen (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
Keimen
6 ch
kommen

Look-alike desk: Keimen vs kommen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Keimen is [ˈkaɪ̯mən] while kommen is [ˈkɔmən]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33325, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Keimen is recorded at frequency rank #33,144, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaɪ̯mən]. kommen is at rank #181, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkɔmən].

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 33325, this pair ranks #1,688,399 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Keimen vs kommen

Shared letters: ekmn. Private to "Keimen": i. Private to "kommen": o.

"Keimen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "kommen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Keimen ← ekimen · keiemn · keimenn · keimmen · keimne · kemien · kiemen · kkeimen
  • kommen ← kkommen · kmomen · komemn · komen · kommenn · kommne · okmmen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Keimen" and "kommen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Keimen" is a noun and "kommen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Keimen" or "kommen" show up more?
"kommen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #181 in our German list, against #33,144 for "Keimen". 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 "Keimen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kommen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,688,399 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Keimen" and "kommen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Keimen vs kneifen". 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 #1,688,399 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