aufladenvsauflegenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#17,812
“aufladen” frequency rank
#17,511
“auflegen” frequency rank
35323
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aufladen auflegen
Definition etwas auf etwas – meist ein Fahrzeug – bringen, heben oder laden etwas auf etwas liegend positionieren

Where the eye mixes aufladen and auflegen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. aufladen and auflegen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
aufladen
8 ch
auflegen

Why the eye confuses aufladen with auflegen

A purely visual mix-up. aufladen ([ˈaʊ̯fˌlaːdn̩]) and auflegen ([ˈaʊ̯fˌleːɡn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aufladen is recorded at frequency rank #17,812, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯fˌlaːdn̩]. auflegen is at rank #17,511, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯fˌleːɡn̩].

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 35323, this pair ranks #1,642,733 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aufladen vs auflegen

Shared letters: aeflnu. Private to "aufladen": d. Private to "auflegen": g.

"aufladen" · 8 letters · shape VVCCVCVC  ·  "auflegen" · 8 letters · shape VVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aufladen ← afuladen · aufalden · auffladen · aufladden · aufladenn · aufladne · auflaedn · aufldaen
  • auflegen ← afulegen · aufelgen · aufflegen · aufleegn · auflegenn · aufleggen · auflegne · auflgeen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aufladen" and "auflegen" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈaʊ̯fˌlaːdn̩] versus [ˈaʊ̯fˌleːɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "aufladen" or "auflegen"?
"auflegen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,511 in our German list, against #17,812 for "aufladen". 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 "aufladen" and "auflegen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aufladen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "auflegen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,642,733 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aufladen" and "auflegen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "auflegen vs Aufzügen". 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 #1,642,733 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