spannen vs Spinner, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#19,042
“spannen” frequency rank: #9,097
“Spinner” frequency rank: 28139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	spannen	Spinner
Definition	etwas mit Kraftaufwand glatt machen	Person, die das Spinnen betreibt, in einer Spinnerei arbeitet, Garn herstellt

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set spannen and Spinner apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

spannen

7 ch

Spinner

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: spannen is [ˈʃpanən] while Spinner is [ˈʃpɪnɐ]. 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 28139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spannen is recorded at frequency rank #19,042, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʃpanən]. Spinner is at rank #9,097, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃpɪnɐ].

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 28139, this pair ranks #1,789,882 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of spannen vs Spinner

Shared letters: enps. Private to "spannen": a. Private to "Spinner": ir.

"spannen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "Spinner" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

spannen ← psannen · sapnnen · spanen · spanenn · spannenn · spannne · spnanen · sppannen
Spinner ← psinner · sipnner · spinenr · spiner · spinnerr · spinnre · spniner · sppinner

Frequency comparison

spannen#19,042

Spinner#9,097

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "spannen" and "Spinner" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "spannen" is a verb and "Spinner" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "spannen" or "Spinner"?

"Spinner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,097 in our German list, against #19,042 for "spannen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering spannen vs Spinner

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “spannen”; for a noun, it's “Spinner”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “spannen” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable