KükenvskunWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Küken is a noun, kun is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Küken” is a noun and “kun” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,935
“Küken” frequency rank
#35,882
“kun” frequency rank
51817
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Küken kun
Definition frisch geschlüpfter Vogel mit

Where the eye mixes Küken and kun

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

5 ch
Küken
3 ch
kun

Why the eye confuses Küken with kun

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Küken is [ˈkyːkn̩] while kun is [kun]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51817, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Küken is recorded at frequency rank #15,935, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkyːkn̩]. kun is at rank #35,882, tagged as aprep, pronounced [kun].

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 51817, this pair ranks #1,120,914 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Küken vs kun

Shared letters: kn. Private to "Küken": . Private to "kun": u.

"Küken" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "kun" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Küken" for "kun" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Küken" is a noun and "kun" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Küken" or "kun" show up more?
"Küken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,935 in our German list, against #35,882 for "kun". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Küken" and "kun" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Küken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,120,914 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Küken" and "kun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Koi vs kun". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,120,914 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