PuppenvspushenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#11,506
“Puppen” frequency rank
#27,011
“pushen” frequency rank
38517
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Puppen pushen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Puppe jemanden oder etwas in eine (unverdient) hohe Position bringen

Where the eye mixes Puppen and pushen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Puppen and pushen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Puppen
6 ch
pushen

Visual trap between Puppen and pushen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Puppen is [ˈpʊpn̩] while pushen is [ˈpʊʃn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38517, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Puppen is recorded at frequency rank #11,506, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpʊpn̩]. pushen is at rank #27,011, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpʊʃn̩].

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 38517, this pair ranks #1,561,892 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Puppen vs pushen

Shared letters: enpu. Private to "Puppen": -. Private to "pushen": hs.

"Puppen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pushen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Puppen ← ppupen · ppuppen · pupen · pupepn · puppenn · puppne · upppen
  • pushen ← ppushen · psuhen · puhsen · pusehn · pushenn · pushhen · pushne · pusshen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Puppen" and "pushen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Puppen" is a noun and "pushen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Puppen" or "pushen" show up more?
"Puppen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,506 in our German list, against #27,011 for "pushen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Puppen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pushen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,561,892 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Puppen" and "pushen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pushen vs pustet". 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 #1,561,892 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