MaskevsmerkeWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#5,623
“Maske” frequency rank
#6,565
“merke” frequency rank
12188
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Maske merke
Definition Gegenstand zur Verhüllung oder zum Schutz 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs merken

Where the eye mixes Maske and merke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Maske and merke follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Maske
5 ch
merke

Look-alike desk: Maske vs merke

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Maske is [ˈmaskə] while merke is [ˈmɛʁkə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12188, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Maske is recorded at frequency rank #5,623, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaskə]. merke is at rank #6,565, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛʁkə].

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 12188, this pair ranks #1,965,650 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Maske vs merke

Shared letters: ekm. Private to "Maske": as. Private to "merke": r.

"Maske" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "merke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Maske ← amske · makse · masek · maskke · masske · mmaske · msake
  • merke ← emrke · mekre · merek · merkke · merrke · mmerke · mreke

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Maske" and "merke" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Maske" is a noun and "merke" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Maske" or "merke"?
"Maske" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,623 in our German list, against #6,565 for "merke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Maske" and "merke" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Maske" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "merke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,965,650 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Maske" and "merke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "merke 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 #1,965,650 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