Which to use
“Tanke” is a noun and “tanken” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,305
- “Tanke” frequency rank
- #12,601
- “tanken” frequency rank
- 44906
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Tanke | tanken |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tankstelle | den Tank eines Fahrzeugs mit Treibstoff befüllen |
Where the eye mixes Tanke and tanken
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Tanke runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against tanken's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between Tanke and tanken
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Tanke is [ˈtaŋkə] while tanken is [ˈtaŋkn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Tanke” sits inside “tanken”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44906, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Tanke is recorded at frequency rank #32,305, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈtaŋkə]. tanken is at rank #12,601, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈtaŋkn̩].
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 44906, this pair ranks #1,370,813 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Tanke vs tanken
Shared letters: aeknt. Private to "Tanke": -. Private to "tanken": -.
"Tanke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "tanken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Tanke" and "tanken" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "Tanke" or "tanken" show up more?
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 "Tanke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tanken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,370,813 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Tanke" and "tanken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Tanke vs tine". 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 #1,370,813 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.