spackenvsStückenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#42,829
“spacken” frequency rank
#8,289
“Stücken” frequency rank
51118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature spacken Stücken
Definition spachen Dativ Plural des Substantivs Stück

Where the eye mixes spacken and Stücken

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. spacken and Stücken follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
spacken
7 ch
Stücken

Look-alike desk: spacken vs Stücken

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: spacken is [ˈʃpakn̩] while Stücken is [ˈʃtʏkn̩]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spacken is recorded at frequency rank #42,829, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʃpakn̩]. Stücken is at rank #8,289, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtʏkn̩].

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 51118, this pair ranks #1,147,735 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of spacken vs Stücken

Shared letters: cekns. Private to "spacken": ap. Private to "Stücken": tü.

"spacken" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "Stücken" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spacken ← psacken · sapcken · spaccken · spacekn · spackenn · spackken · spackne · spakcen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "spacken" for "Stücken" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "spacken" is a verb and "Stücken" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "spacken" or "Stücken" show up more?
"Stücken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,289 in our German list, against #42,829 for "spacken". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "spacken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Stücken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,147,735 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "spacken" and "Stücken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Säcken vs spacken". 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 #1,147,735 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