plagevsplagenConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,073
“plage” frequency rank
#24,074
“plagen” frequency rank
48147
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plage plagen
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs plagen sich großen Anstrengungen unterziehen

Where the eye mixes plage and plagen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. plage runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against plagen's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
plage
6 ch
plagen

Visual trap between plage and plagen

A purely visual mix-up. plage ([ˈplaːɡə]) and plagen ([ˈplaːɡn̩]) 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 extra letter(s) - “plage” sits inside “plagen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48147, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plage is recorded at frequency rank #24,073, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈplaːɡə]. plagen is at rank #24,074, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈplaːɡn̩].

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 48147, this pair ranks #1,259,098 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of plage vs plagen

Shared letters: aeglp. Private to "plage": -. Private to "plagen": n.

"plage" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "plagen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plage ← lpage · palge · plaeg · plagge · plgae · pllage · pplage
  • plagen ← lpagen · palgen · plaegn · plagenn · plaggen · plagne · plgaen · pllagen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "plage" for "plagen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈplaːɡə] versus [ˈplaːɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "plage" vs "plagen" - which ranks higher?
"plage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,073 in our German list, against #24,074 for "plagen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "plage" and "plagen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "plage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "plagen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,259,098 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "plage" and "plagen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plagen 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 #1,259,098 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