AblagevsablegenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#31,916
“Ablage” frequency rank
#9,496
“ablegen” frequency rank
41412
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ablage ablegen
Definition ein offenes Behältnis (oder auch dafür bestimmter Ort), das dazu dient, Dinge (meist: Papier) hineinzulegen fortlegen, niederlegen, irgendwohin legen

Where the eye mixes Ablage and ablegen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Ablage
7 ch
ablegen

Why the eye confuses Ablage with ablegen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ablage is [ˈapˌlaːɡə] while ablegen is [ˈapˌleːɡn̩]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ablage is recorded at frequency rank #31,916, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈapˌlaːɡə]. ablegen is at rank #9,496, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈapˌleːɡn̩].

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 41412, this pair ranks #1,480,223 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ablage vs ablegen

Shared letters: abegl. Private to "Ablage": -. Private to "ablegen": n.

"Ablage" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "ablegen" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ablageabalge · abblage · ablaeg · ablagge · ablgae · abllage · albage · balage
  • ablegenabblegen · abelgen · ableegn · ablegenn · ableggen · ablegne · ablgeen · abllegen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Ablage" for "ablegen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ablage" is a noun and "ablegen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Ablage" or "ablegen"?
"ablegen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,496 in our German list, against #31,916 for "Ablage". 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 "Ablage" and "ablegen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ablage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ablegen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,480,223 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ablage" and "ablegen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ablage vs ablegt". 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 #1,480,223 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