merchvsmerkeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: merch is a noun, merke is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“merch” is a noun and “merke” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,807
“merch” frequency rank
#6,565
“merke” frequency rank
41372
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature merch merke
Definition Tochter 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs merken

Letter map: merch vs merke

Shared letters muted; letters that set merch and merke apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. merch (CVCCC) and merke (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
merch
5 ch
merke

Part-of-speech tell for merch / merke

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: merch is anoun and merkeaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

merch is recorded at frequency rank #34,807, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. 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 41372, this pair ranks #1,481,396 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of merch vs merke

Shared letters: emr. Private to "merch": ch. Private to "merke": k.

"merch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "merke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • merch ← emrch · mecrh · mercch · merchh · merhc · merrch · mmerch · mrech
  • merke ← emrke · mekre · merek · merkke · merrke · mmerke · mreke

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "merch" for "merke" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "merch" is a noun and "merke" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "merch" or "merke" show up more?
"merke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,565 in our German list, against #34,807 for "merch". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "merch" vs "merke" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "merch" 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 #1,481,396 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "merch" and "merke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "merch vs puzzles". 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 #1,481,396 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list