PaukenvsPauseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“Pauken” and “Pause” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,700
“Pauken” frequency rank
#1,984
“Pause” frequency rank
34684
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pauken Pause
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Pauke Unterbrechung einer Tätigkeit

Where the eye mixes Pauken and Pause

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

6 ch
Pauken
5 ch
Pause

Look-alike desk: Pauken vs Pause

A purely visual mix-up. Pauken ([ˈpaʊ̯kn̩]) and Pause ([ˈpaʊ̯zə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34684, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pauken is recorded at frequency rank #32,700, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaʊ̯kn̩]. Pause is at rank #1,984, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaʊ̯zə].

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 34684, this pair ranks #1,657,708 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Pauken vs Pause

Shared letters: aepu. Private to "Pauken": kn. Private to "Pause": s.

"Pauken" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "Pause" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Paukenapuken · pakuen · pauekn · paukenn · paukken · paukne · ppauken · puaken
  • Pauseapuse · pasue · paues · pausse · ppause · puase

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Pauken" and "Pause" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpaʊ̯kn̩] versus [ˈpaʊ̯zə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Pauken" or "Pause" show up more?
"Pause" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,984 in our German list, against #32,700 for "Pauken". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "Pauken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Pause" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,657,708 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pauken" and "Pause" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pauken vs Planken". 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 #1,657,708 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