PlanckvsplanenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Planck is a name, planen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Planck” is a name and “planen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,968
“Planck” frequency rank
#3,612
“planen” frequency rank
19580
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Planck planen
Definition deutscher Nachname, Familienname zukünftige Handlungen ausarbeiten; sich Gedanken darüber machen, wie eine künftige Sache gut durchgeführt werden kann

Letter map: Planck vs planen

Shared letters muted; letters that set Planck and planen apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
Planck
6 ch
planen

Role in the sentence - Planck and planen

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Planck is aname and planenaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19580, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Planck is recorded at frequency rank #15,968, classified as aname, pronounced […]. planen is at rank #3,612, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈplaːnən].

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 19580, this pair ranks #1,906,842 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Planck vs planen

Shared letters: alnp. Private to "Planck": ck. Private to "planen": e.

"Planck" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "planen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Plancklpanck · palnck · placnk · plancck · planckk · plankc · plannck · pllanck
  • planenlpanen · palnen · plaenn · planenn · planne · plannen · pllanen · plnaen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Planck" for "planen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Planck" is a name and "planen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Planck" or "planen" show up more?
"planen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,612 in our German list, against #15,968 for "Planck". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Planck" and "planen". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Planck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "planen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,906,842 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Planck" and "planen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Planck vs puzzles". 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 #1,906,842 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