abladenvsAnlagenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#41,620
“abladen” frequency rank
#2,753
“Anlagen” frequency rank
44373
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abladen Anlagen
Definition eine Ladung von einem Ort (zum Beispiel einem Transportfahrzeug) entfernen oder herunterheben Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Anlage

Where the eye mixes abladen and Anlagen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. abladen and Anlagen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
abladen
7 ch
Anlagen

Visual trap between abladen and Anlagen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: abladen is [ˈapˌlaːdn̩] while Anlagen is [ˈanˌlaːɡn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44373, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abladen is recorded at frequency rank #41,620, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈapˌlaːdn̩]. Anlagen is at rank #2,753, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈanˌlaːɡn̩].

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 44373, this pair ranks #1,388,272 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abladen vs Anlagen

Shared letters: aeln. Private to "abladen": bd. Private to "Anlagen": g.

"abladen" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "Anlagen" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abladen ← abalden · abbladen · abladden · abladenn · abladne · ablaedn · abldaen · albaden
  • Anlagen ← alnagen · analgen · anlaegn · anlagenn · anlaggen · anlagne · anlgaen · anllagen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "abladen" and "Anlagen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "abladen" is a verb and "Anlagen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "abladen" vs "Anlagen" - which ranks higher?
"Anlagen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,753 in our German list, against #41,620 for "abladen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abladen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Anlagen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,388,272 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abladen" and "Anlagen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abgeladen vs abladen". 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 #1,388,272 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