tankenvsTaxenConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#12,601
“tanken” frequency rank
#43,533
“Taxen” frequency rank
56134
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tanken Taxen
Definition den Tank eines Fahrzeugs mit Treibstoff befüllen Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Taxe

Where the eye mixes tanken and Taxen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tanken runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against Taxen's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
tanken
5 ch
Taxen

Visual trap between tanken and Taxen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tanken is [ˈtaŋkn̩] while Taxen is [ˈtaksn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tanken is recorded at frequency rank #12,601, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈtaŋkn̩]. Taxen is at rank #43,533, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈtaksn̩].

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 56134, this pair ranks #952,136 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tanken vs Taxen

Shared letters: aent. Private to "tanken": k. Private to "Taxen": x.

"tanken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Taxen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tanken ← atnken · taknen · tanekn · tankenn · tankken · tankne · tannken · tnaken
  • Taxen ← atxen · taexn · taxenn · taxne · taxxen · ttaxen · txaen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tanken" and "Taxen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tanken" is a verb and "Taxen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "tanken" or "Taxen" show up more?
"tanken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,601 in our German list, against #43,533 for "Taxen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "tanken" and "Taxen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tanken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Taxen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #952,136 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tanken" and "Taxen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Tadel vs Taxen". 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 #952,136 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