Which to use
“Kursen” is a noun and “kürten” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,139
- “Kursen” frequency rank
- #39,491
- “kürten” frequency rank
- 54630
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Kursen | kürten |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dativ Plural des Substantivs Kurs | 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs küren |
Where the eye mixes Kursen and kürten
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Kursen and kürten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses Kursen with kürten
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Kursen is [ˈkʊʁzn̩] while kürten is [ˈkyːɐ̯tn̩]. 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 54630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Kursen is recorded at frequency rank #15,139, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkʊʁzn̩]. kürten is at rank #39,491, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkyːɐ̯tn̩].
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 54630, this pair ranks #1,011,328 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Kursen vs kürten
Shared letters: eknr. Private to "Kursen": su. Private to "kürten": tü.
"Kursen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "kürten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Kursen ← kkursen · krusen · kuresn · kurrsen · kursenn · kursne · kurssen · kusren
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Kursen" for "kürten" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Kursen" or "kürten" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Kursen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "kürten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,011,328 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Kursen" and "kürten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kucken vs kürten". 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 #1,011,328 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.