Which to use
“melk” is an adjective and “merke” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,987
- “melk” frequency rank
- #6,565
- “merke” frequency rank
- 48552
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | melk | merke |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Milch gebend | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs merken |
Where the eye mixes melk and merke
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. melk runs 4 letters (CVCC) against merke's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses melk with merke
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: melk is [mɛlk] while merke is [ˈmɛʁkə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48552, 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]. 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 48552, this pair ranks #1,244,291 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of melk vs merke
Shared letters: ekm. Private to "melk": l. Private to "merke": r.
"melk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "merke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "melk" for "merke" ever safe?
Which is more common, "melk" or "merke"?
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 "merke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,244,291 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "melk" and "merke" 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 #1,244,291 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.