tauchevstauchenTell them apart

Which to use

“tauche” and “tauchen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#38,440
“tauche” frequency rank
#7,403
“tauchen” frequency rank
45843
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tauche tauchen
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tauchen mit dem Kopf oder dem gesamten Körper unter die Oberfläche des Wassers gehen

Where the eye mixes tauche and tauchen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. tauche runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against tauchen's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
tauche
7 ch
tauchen

Visual trap between tauche and tauchen

A purely visual mix-up. tauche ([ˈtaʊ̯xə]) and tauchen ([ˈtaʊ̯xn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “tauche” sits inside “tauchen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45843, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tauche is recorded at frequency rank #38,440, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈtaʊ̯xə]. tauchen is at rank #7,403, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈtaʊ̯xn̩].

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 45843, this pair ranks #1,339,358 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tauche vs tauchen

Shared letters: acehtu. Private to "tauche": -. Private to "tauchen": n.

"tauche" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "tauchen" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tauche ← atuche · tacuhe · taucche · tauceh · tauchhe · tauhce · ttauche · tuache
  • tauchen ← atuchen · tacuhen · taucchen · taucehn · tauchenn · tauchhen · tauchne · tauhcen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tauche" for "tauchen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈtaʊ̯xə] versus [ˈtaʊ̯xn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "tauche" or "tauchen" show up more?
"tauchen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,403 in our German list, against #38,440 for "tauche". 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 "tauche" and "tauchen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tauche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tauchen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,339,358 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tauche" and "tauchen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tauche vs Tusche". 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 #1,339,358 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