TafelvstapesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#5,119
“Tafel” frequency rank
#41,496
“tapes” frequency rank
46615
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Tafel tapes
Definition ein plattenförmiges Stück (oft verwendet als Darreichungsform für Schokolade) 2. Person Singular Präsens Konjunktiv des Verbs tapar

Letter map: Tafel vs tapes

Shared letters muted; letters that set Tafel and tapes apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Tafel and tapes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Tafel
5 ch
tapes

Part-of-speech tell for Tafel / tapes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Tafel is anoun and tapesaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46615, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Tafel is recorded at frequency rank #5,119, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈtaːfl̩]. tapes is at rank #41,496, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 46615, this pair ranks #1,313,021 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Tafel vs tapes

Shared letters: aet. Private to "Tafel": fl. Private to "tapes": ps.

"Tafel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "tapes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Tafel ← atfel · taefl · tafell · taffel · tafle · tfael · ttafel
  • tapes ← atpes · taeps · tapess · tappes · tapse · tpaes · ttapes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Tafel" and "tapes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Tafel" is a noun and "tapes" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Tafel" or "tapes"?
"Tafel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,119 in our German list, against #41,496 for "tapes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Tafel" and "tapes".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Tafel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tapes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,313,021 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Tafel" and "tapes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tapes". 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 #1,313,021 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