Which to use
“melk” is an adjective and “melken” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,987
- “melk” frequency rank
- #27,412
- “melken” frequency rank
- 69399
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | melk | melken |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Milch gebend | Milch vom Milchvieh gewinnen |
Where the eye mixes melk and melken
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses melk with melken
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: melk is [mɛlk] while melken is [ˈmɛlkn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “melk” sits inside “melken”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
melk is recorded at frequency rank #41,987, classified as anadj, pronounced [mɛlk]. melken is at rank #27,412, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛlkn̩].
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 69399, this pair ranks #477,833 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of melk vs melken
Shared letters: eklm. Private to "melk": -. Private to "melken": n.
"melk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "melken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "melk" and "melken" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "melk" vs "melken" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "melk" and "melken" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "melk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "melken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #477,833 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "melk" and "melken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals vs melk". 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 #477,833 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.