Which to use
“marten” is a noun and “merkten” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,341
- “marten” frequency rank
- #34,259
- “merkten” frequency rank
- 77600
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marten | merkten |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | der Marder | 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs merken |
Letter map: marten vs merkten
Shared letters muted; letters that set marten and merkten apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. marten runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against merkten's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - marten and merkten
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: marten is anoun and merktenaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77600, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marten is recorded at frequency rank #43,341, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. merkten is at rank #34,259, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛʁktn̩].
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 77600, this pair ranks #257,196 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of marten vs merkten
Shared letters: emnrt. Private to "marten": a. Private to "merkten": k.
"marten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "merkten" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "marten" for "merkten" ever safe?
Which is more common, "marten" or "merkten"?
After this comparison
Pair "marten" vs "merkten" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "marten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "merkten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #257,196 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marten" and "merkten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marten vs puzzles". 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 #257,196 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.