Which to use
“Quell” is a noun and “quellen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,230
- “Quell” frequency rank
- #1,858
- “quellen” frequency rank
- 33088
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Quell | quellen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Stelle, an der Wasser oder Luft austritt | austreten, ansteigen, sprudeln |
Where the eye mixes Quell and quellen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Quell runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against quellen's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between Quell and quellen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Quell is [kvɛl] while quellen is [ˈkvɛlən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Quell” sits inside “quellen”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33088, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Quell is recorded at frequency rank #31,230, classified as anoun, pronounced [kvɛl]. quellen is at rank #1,858, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkvɛlən].
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 33088, this pair ranks #1,693,536 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Quell vs quellen
Shared letters: elqu. Private to "Quell": -. Private to "quellen": n.
"Quell" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "quellen" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Quell" and "quellen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "Quell" or "quellen" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "Quell" and "quellen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Quell" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "quellen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,693,536 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Quell" and "quellen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Quell vs queue". 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 #1,693,536 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.