Which to use
“melken” is a verb and “Melle” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,412
- “melken” frequency rank
- #37,077
- “Melle” frequency rank
- 64489
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | melken | Melle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Milch vom Milchvieh gewinnen | eine Stadt in Niedersachsen, Deutschland |
Where the eye mixes melken and Melle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. melken runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against Melle's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between melken and Melle
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: melken is [ˈmɛlkn̩] while Melle is [ˈmɛlə]. 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 (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64489, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
melken is recorded at frequency rank #27,412, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛlkn̩]. Melle is at rank #37,077, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈmɛlə].
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 64489, this pair ranks #639,739 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of melken vs Melle
Shared letters: elm. Private to "melken": kn. Private to "Melle": -.
"melken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "Melle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "melken" for "Melle" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "melken" or "Melle" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "melken" and "Melle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "melken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Melle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #639,739 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "melken" and "Melle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Melle 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 #639,739 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.