krankvskrankesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,736
“krank” frequency rank
#30,651
“krankes” frequency rank
32387
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature krank krankes
Definition körperlich und/oder psychisch gesundheitlich eingeschränkt Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs krank

Where the eye mixes krank and krankes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. krank runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against krankes's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
krank
7 ch
krankes

Why the eye confuses krank with krankes

A purely visual mix-up. krank ([kʁaŋk]) and krankes ([ˈkʁaŋkəs]) 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) - “krank” sits inside “krankes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32387, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

krank is recorded at frequency rank #1,736, classified as anadj, pronounced [kʁaŋk]. krankes is at rank #30,651, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈkʁaŋkəs].

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 32387, this pair ranks #1,708,715 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of krank vs krankes

Shared letters: aknr. Private to "krank": -. Private to "krankes": es.

"krank" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "krankes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • krank ← karnk · kkrank · krakn · krankk · krannk · krnak · krrank · rkank
  • krankes ← karnkes · kkrankes · kraknes · kraneks · krankess · krankkes · krankse · krannkes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "krank" for "krankes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([kʁaŋk] versus [ˈkʁaŋkəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "krank" or "krankes" show up more?
"krank" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,736 in our German list, against #30,651 for "krankes". 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 "krank" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "krankes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,708,715 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "krank" and "krankes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kraken vs krankes". 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 #1,708,715 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