MarkevsmerkteTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#2,508
“Marke” frequency rank
#8,596
“merkte” frequency rank
11104
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Marke merkte
Definition eine dauerhafte Kennzeichnung oder Markierung 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs merken

Where the eye mixes Marke and merkte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Marke runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against merkte's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Marke
6 ch
merkte

Why the eye confuses Marke with merkte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Marke is [ˈmaʁkə] while merkte is [ˈmɛʁktə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11104, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Marke is recorded at frequency rank #2,508, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaʁkə]. merkte is at rank #8,596, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛʁktə].

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 11104, this pair ranks #1,971,678 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Marke vs merkte

Shared letters: ekmr. Private to "Marke": a. Private to "merkte": t.

"Marke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "merkte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Markeamrke · makre · markke · marrke · mmarke · mrake
  • merkteemrkte · mekrte · merket · merkkte · merktte · merrkte · mertke · mmerkte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Marke" and "merkte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Marke" is a noun and "merkte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Marke" or "merkte" show up more?
"Marke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,508 in our German list, against #8,596 for "merkte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "Marke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "merkte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,971,678 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Marke" and "merkte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "merkte vs Mette". 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 #1,971,678 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