krähtvskrankWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: kräht is a verb, krank is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“kräht” is a verb and “krank” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,792
“kräht” frequency rank
#1,736
“krank” frequency rank
48528
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kräht krank
Definition 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs krähen körperlich und/oder psychisch gesundheitlich eingeschränkt

Where the eye mixes kräht and krank

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
kräht
5 ch
krank

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: kräht is [kʁɛːt] while krank is [kʁaŋk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48528, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kräht is recorded at frequency rank #46,792, classified as averb, pronounced [kʁɛːt]. krank is at rank #1,736, tagged as anadj, pronounced [kʁaŋk].

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 48528, this pair ranks #1,245,241 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kräht vs krank

Shared letters: kr. Private to "kräht": htä. Private to "krank": an.

"kräht" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "krank" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • krankkarnk · kkrank · krakn · krankk · krannk · krnak · krrank · rkank

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "kräht" and "krank" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kräht" is a verb and "krank" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "kräht" or "krank"?
"krank" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,736 in our German list, against #46,792 for "kräht". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "kräht" and "krank". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kräht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "krank" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,245,241 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kräht" and "krank" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kräht vs krönt". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list