knappvsknappesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“knapp” and “knappes” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,014
“knapp” frequency rank
#28,732
“knappes” frequency rank
29746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature knapp knappes
Definition gerade noch ausreichend; weniger als das, was man eigentlich braucht oder gerne hätte Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs knapp

Where the eye mixes knapp and knappes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
knapp
7 ch
knappes

Look-alike desk: knapp vs knappes

A purely visual mix-up. knapp ([knap]) and knappes ([ˈknapəs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “knapp” sits inside “knappes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

knapp is recorded at frequency rank #1,014, classified as anadj, pronounced [knap]. knappes is at rank #28,732, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈknapəs].

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 29746, this pair ranks #1,761,080 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of knapp vs knappes

Shared letters: aknp. Private to "knapp": -. Private to "knappes": es.

"knapp" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "knappes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • knappkanpp · kknapp · knap · knnapp · knpap · nkapp
  • knappeskanppes · kknappes · knapeps · knapes · knappess · knappse · knnappes · knpapes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "knapp" for "knappes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([knap] versus [ˈknapəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "knapp" or "knappes" show up more?
"knapp" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,014 in our German list, against #28,732 for "knappes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "knapp" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "knappes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,761,080 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "knapp" and "knappes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "knappes vs Knüppel". 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 #1,761,080 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