PhrasenvsprägenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#18,021
“Phrasen” frequency rank
#11,728
“prägen” frequency rank
29749
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Phrasen prägen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Phrase mit einer bildlichen Darstellung, einem oder mehreren Schriftzeichen, Symbolen oder einem Muster jedweder Art versehen, wobei durch Druck mit dazu angemessenen Werkzeugen oder Maschinen der Oberfläche von tauglichem Material – wie beispielsweise Metall, Papier, Leder – reliefartig eine bestimmte Form gegeben wird

Where the eye mixes Phrasen and prägen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Phrasen runs 7 letters (CCCVCVC) against prägen's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Phrasen
6 ch
prägen

Look-alike desk: Phrasen vs prägen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Phrasen is [ˈfʁaːzn̩] while prägen is [ˈpʁɛːɡn̩]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29749, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Phrasen is recorded at frequency rank #18,021, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfʁaːzn̩]. prägen is at rank #11,728, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpʁɛːɡn̩].

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 29749, this pair ranks #1,761,033 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Phrasen vs prägen

Shared letters: enpr. Private to "Phrasen": ahs. Private to "prägen": gä.

"Phrasen" · 7 letters · shape CCCVCVC  ·  "prägen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Phrasen ← hprasen · pharsen · phhrasen · phraesn · phrasenn · phrasne · phrassen · phrrasen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Phrasen" and "prägen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Phrasen" is a noun and "prägen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Phrasen" or "prägen" show up more?
"prägen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,728 in our German list, against #18,021 for "Phrasen". 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 "Phrasen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prägen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,761,033 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Phrasen" and "prägen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Phrasen vs Präsens". 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 #1,761,033 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