Which to use
“zähen” is an adjective and “Zehen” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,326
- “zähen” frequency rank
- #12,420
- “Zehen” frequency rank
- 49746
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | zähen | Zehen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs zäh | Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Zehe |
Where the eye mixes zähen and Zehen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. zähen and Zehen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between zähen and Zehen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: zähen is [ˈt͡sɛːən] while Zehen is [ˈt͡seːən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - ä in “zähen” becomes e in “Zehen”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
zähen is recorded at frequency rank #37,326, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈt͡sɛːən]. Zehen is at rank #12,420, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈt͡seːən].
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 49746, this pair ranks #1,199,873 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of zähen vs Zehen
Shared letters: ehnz. Private to "zähen": ä. Private to "Zehen": -.
"zähen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "Zehen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Zehen ← ezhen · zeehn · zehenn · zehhen · zehne · zheen · zzehen
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "zähen" and "Zehen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "zähen" or "Zehen"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "zähen" and "Zehen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "zähen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Zehen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,199,873 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "zähen" and "Zehen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "zähen vs zechen". 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 #1,199,873 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.