plagevsprägenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,073
“plage” frequency rank
#11,728
“prägen” frequency rank
35801
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plage prägen
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs plagen 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 plage and prägen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. plage runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against prägen's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
plage
6 ch
prägen

Visual trap between plage and prägen

A purely visual mix-up. plage ([ˈplaːɡə]) and prägen ([ˈpʁɛːɡn̩]) 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 35801, 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]. 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 35801, this pair ranks #1,631,190 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of plage vs prägen

Shared letters: egp. Private to "plage": al. Private to "prägen": nrä.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plage ← lpage · palge · plaeg · plagge · plgae · pllage · pplage

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "plage" and "prägen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈplaːɡə] versus [ˈpʁɛːɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "plage" vs "prägen" - which ranks higher?
"prägen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,728 in our German list, against #24,073 for "plage". 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 "prägen" 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 "prägen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,631,190 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "plage" and "prägen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plage vs plata". 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 #1,631,190 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