KürzevskürztConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#5,862
“Kürze” frequency rank
#44,034
“kürzt” frequency rank
49896
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kürze kürzt
Definition Sparsamkeit mit Worten 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs kürzen

Where the eye mixes Kürze and kürzt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Kürze (CVCCV) and kürzt (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
Kürze
5 ch
kürzt

Visual trap between Kürze and kürzt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Kürze is [ˈkʏʁt͡sə] while kürzt is [kʏʁt͡st]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “Kürze” becomes t in “kürzt”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49896, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kürze is recorded at frequency rank #5,862, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkʏʁt͡sə]. kürzt is at rank #44,034, tagged as averb, pronounced [kʏʁt͡st].

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 49896, this pair ranks #1,194,304 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Kürze vs kürzt

Shared letters: krzü. Private to "Kürze": e. Private to "kürzt": t.

"Kürze" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "kürzt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Kürze" for "kürzt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Kürze" is a noun and "kürzt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Kürze" or "kürzt"?
"Kürze" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,862 in our German list, against #44,034 for "kürzt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kürze" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kürzt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,194,304 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kürze" and "kürzt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kurie vs kürzt". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,194,304 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