KohlenvskommenConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#25,626
“Kohlen” frequency rank
#181
“kommen” frequency rank
25807
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kohlen kommen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Kohle einen Ort erreichen, sich von einem Ort hierher begeben

Where the eye mixes Kohlen and kommen

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

6 ch
Kohlen
6 ch
kommen

Look-alike desk: Kohlen vs kommen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Kohlen is [ˈkoːlən] 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 25807, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kohlen is recorded at frequency rank #25,626, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkoːlən]. 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 25807, this pair ranks #1,827,691 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Kohlen vs kommen

Shared letters: ekno. Private to "Kohlen": hl. Private to "kommen": m.

"Kohlen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "kommen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Kohlen ← kholen · kkohlen · koheln · kohhlen · kohlenn · kohllen · kohlne · kolhen
  • kommen ← kkommen · kmomen · komemn · komen · kommenn · kommne · okmmen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Kohlen" and "kommen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Kohlen" is a noun and "kommen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Kohlen" or "kommen" show up more?
"kommen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #181 in our German list, against #25,626 for "Kohlen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kohlen" 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 #1,827,691 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kohlen" and "kommen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kohlen vs Kölle". 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 #1,827,691 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