PackvspackteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,405
“Pack” frequency rank
#16,510
“packte” frequency rank
21915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pack packte
Definition heruntergekommene, (teils kriminelle) Menschen; Gesindel 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs packen

Where the eye mixes Pack and packte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Pack
6 ch
packte

Why the eye confuses Pack with packte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Pack is [pak] while packte is [ˈpaktə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Pack” sits inside “packte”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pack is recorded at frequency rank #5,405, classified as anoun, pronounced [pak]. packte is at rank #16,510, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpaktə].

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 21915, this pair ranks #1,880,634 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Pack vs packte

Shared letters: ackp. Private to "Pack": -. Private to "packte": et.

"Pack" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "packte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Packapck · pacck · packk · pakc · pcak · ppack
  • packteapckte · pacckte · packkte · packtte · pactke · pakcte · pcakte · ppackte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Pack" and "packte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pack" is a noun and "packte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Pack" vs "packte" - which ranks higher?
"Pack" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,405 in our German list, against #16,510 for "packte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Pack" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "packte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,880,634 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pack" and "packte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "packte vs parkte". 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 #1,880,634 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