TadelvstagenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#46,313
“Tadel” frequency rank
#608
“tagen” frequency rank
46921
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Tadel tagen
Definition Erziehungsmaßnahme mit verhaltenskorrigierender Funktion Tag werden

Where the eye mixes Tadel and tagen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Tadel and tagen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Tadel
5 ch
tagen

Visual trap between Tadel and tagen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Tadel is [ˈtaːdl̩] while tagen is [ˈtaːɡn̩]. 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 46921, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Tadel is recorded at frequency rank #46,313, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈtaːdl̩]. tagen is at rank #608, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈtaːɡn̩].

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 46921, this pair ranks #1,302,372 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Tadel vs tagen

Shared letters: aet. Private to "Tadel": dl. Private to "tagen": gn.

"Tadel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "tagen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Tadel ← atdel · taddel · tadell · tadle · taedl · tdael · ttadel
  • tagen ← atgen · taegn · tagenn · taggen · tagne · tgaen · ttagen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Tadel" for "tagen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Tadel" is a noun and "tagen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Tadel" vs "tagen" - which ranks higher?
"tagen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #608 in our German list, against #46,313 for "Tadel". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "Tadel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tagen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,302,372 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Tadel" and "tagen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Tadel vs tall". 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 #1,302,372 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