takevstapesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#8,953
“take” frequency rank
#41,496
“tapes” frequency rank
50449
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature take tapes
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs tak 2. Person Singular Präsens Konjunktiv des Verbs tapar

Letter map: take vs tapes

Shared letters muted; letters that set take and tapes apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
take
5 ch
tapes

Grammar separator: take vs tapes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: take is anadjective and tapesaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50449, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

take is recorded at frequency rank #8,953, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈtakə]. 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 50449, this pair ranks #1,173,251 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of take vs tapes

Shared letters: aet. Private to "take": k. Private to "tapes": ps.

"take" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tapes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • taketaek · takke · tkae · ttake
  • tapesatpes · taeps · tapess · tappes · tapse · tpaes · ttapes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "take" for "tapes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "take" is an adjective and "tapes" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "take" or "tapes" show up more?
"take" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,953 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "take" 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 #1,173,251 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "take" 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 #1,173,251 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