martensvsyearsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“martens” and “years” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#25,657
“martens” frequency rank
#13,282
“years” frequency rank
38939
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature martens years
Definition Plural des Substantivs marten Plural des Substantivs year

Letter map: martens vs years

Shared letters muted; letters that set martens and years apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. martens runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against years's 5 (VVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
martens
5 ch
years

Pair insight - martens / years

martens and years are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38939, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

martens is recorded at frequency rank #25,657, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. years is at rank #13,282, tagged as anoun, 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 38939, this pair ranks #1,550,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of martens vs years

Shared letters: aers. Private to "martens": mnt. Private to "years": y.

"martens" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "years" · 5 letters · shape VVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • martensamrtens · maretns · marrtens · martenns · martenss · martesn · martnes · marttens
  • yearseyars · yaers · yearrs · yearss · yeasr · yeras · yyears

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "martens" for "years" ever safe?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "martens" vs "years" - which ranks higher?
"years" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,282 in our German list, against #25,657 for "martens". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "martens" and "years". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "martens" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "years" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,550,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "martens" and "years" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "martens 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 #1,550,545 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