martenvsupdatesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#43,341
“marten” frequency rank
#9,475
“updates” frequency rank
52816
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marten updates
Definition der Marder 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs update

Letter map: marten vs updates

Shared letters muted; letters that set marten and updates apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. marten runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against updates's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
marten
7 ch
updates

Role in the sentence - marten and updates

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: marten is anoun and updatesaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marten is recorded at frequency rank #43,341, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. updates is at rank #9,475, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 52816, this pair ranks #1,082,197 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marten vs updates

Shared letters: aet. Private to "marten": mnr. Private to "updates": dpsu.

"marten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "updates" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • martenamrten · maretn · marrten · martenn · martne · martten · matren · mmarten
  • updatespudates · udpates · upadtes · updaets · updatess · updatse · updattes · upddates

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marten" for "updates" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "marten" is a noun and "updates" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "marten" or "updates"?
"updates" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,475 in our German list, against #43,341 for "marten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "marten" and "updates".

  • Full dictionary entry for "marten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "updates" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,082,197 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marten" and "updates" 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 #1,082,197 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