Which to use
“melk” is an adjective and “merk” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,987
- “melk” frequency rank
- #12,537
- “merk” frequency rank
- 54524
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | melk | merk |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Milch gebend | 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs merken |
Where the eye mixes melk and merk
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. melk and merk follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses melk with merk
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: melk is [mɛlk] while merk is [mɛʁk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - l in “melk” becomes r in “merk”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54524, 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]. merk is at rank #12,537, tagged as averb, pronounced [mɛʁk].
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 54524, this pair ranks #1,015,535 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of melk vs merk
Shared letters: ekm. Private to "melk": l. Private to "merk": r.
"melk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "merk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "melk" and "merk" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "melk" vs "merk" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "melk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "merk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,015,535 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "melk" and "merk" 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 #1,015,535 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.