KönigvskönntWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#816
“König” frequency rank
#1,233
“könnt” frequency rank
2049
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature König könnt
Definition höchster oder historisch hoher (nach dem Kaiser) monarchischer Würdenträger eines Staates, eines Königreiches; Namensbestandteil von Titelbezeichnungen 2. Person Plural Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs können

Where the eye mixes König and könnt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
König
5 ch
könnt

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: König is [ˈkøːnɪç] while könnt is [kœnt]. 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 2049, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

König is recorded at frequency rank #816, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkøːnɪç]. könnt is at rank #1,233, tagged as averb, pronounced [kœnt].

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 2049, this pair ranks #2,003,212 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of König vs könnt

Shared letters: knö. Private to "König": gi. Private to "könnt": t.

"König" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "könnt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "König" and "könnt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "König" is a noun and "könnt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "König" or "könnt"?
"König" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #816 in our German list, against #1,233 for "könnt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list