tagtevsTankeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#33,331
“tagte” frequency rank
#32,305
“Tanke” frequency rank
65636
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tagte Tanke
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs tagen Tankstelle

Where the eye mixes tagte and Tanke

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

5 ch
tagte
5 ch
Tanke

Why the eye confuses tagte with Tanke

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tagte is [ˈtaːktə] while Tanke is [ˈtaŋkə]. 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 65636, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tagte is recorded at frequency rank #33,331, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈtaːktə]. Tanke is at rank #32,305, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈtaŋkə].

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 65636, this pair ranks #600,083 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tagte vs Tanke

Shared letters: aet. Private to "tagte": g. Private to "Tanke": kn.

"tagte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Tanke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tagte ← atgte · taget · taggte · tagtte · tatge · tgate · ttagte
  • Tanke ← atnke · takne · tanek · tankke · tannke · tnake · ttanke

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tagte" and "Tanke" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tagte" is a verb and "Tanke" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tagte" or "Tanke"?
"Tanke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,305 in our German list, against #33,331 for "tagte". 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 "tagte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Tanke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #600,083 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tagte" and "Tanke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tagte vs taut". 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 #600,083 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