Which to use
“taken” is an adjective and “Taten” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,860
- “taken” frequency rank
- #2,858
- “Taten” frequency rank
- 45718
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | taken | Taten |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs tak | Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Tat |
Where the eye mixes taken and Taten
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. taken and Taten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: taken vs Taten
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: taken is [ˈtakn̩] while Taten is [ˈtaːtn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - k in “taken” becomes t in “Taten”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45718, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
taken is recorded at frequency rank #42,860, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈtakn̩]. Taten is at rank #2,858, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈtaːtn̩].
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 45718, this pair ranks #1,343,538 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of taken vs Taten
Shared letters: aent. Private to "taken": k. Private to "Taten": -.
"taken" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "Taten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "taken" and "Taten" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "taken" or "Taten" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "taken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Taten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,343,538 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "taken" and "Taten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "taken vs taking". 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 #1,343,538 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.