Which to use
“melk” is an adjective and “milk” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,987
- “melk” frequency rank
- #34,262
- “milk” frequency rank
- 76249
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | melk | milk |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Milch gebend | 2. Person Singular Präsens Imperativ Aktiv des Verbs melken |
Where the eye mixes melk and milk
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. melk and milk 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 milk
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: melk is [mɛlk] while milk is [mɪlk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “melk” becomes i in “milk”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76249, 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]. milk is at rank #34,262, tagged as averb, pronounced [mɪlk].
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 76249, this pair ranks #288,358 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of melk vs milk
Shared letters: klm. Private to "melk": e. Private to "milk": i.
"melk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "milk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "melk" and "milk" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "melk" or "milk"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "melk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "milk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #288,358 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "melk" and "milk" 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 #288,358 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.