ausgelegtenvsausgelesenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ausgelegten is a adjective, ausgelesen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ausgelegten” is an adjective and “ausgelesen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,728
“ausgelegten” frequency rank
#43,026
“ausgelesen” frequency rank
86754
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ausgelegten ausgelesen
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs ausgelegt Partizip Perfekt des Verbs auslesen

Where the eye mixes ausgelegten and ausgelesen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. ausgelegten runs 11 letters (VVCCVCVCCVC) against ausgelesen's 10 (VVCCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
ausgelegten
10 ch
ausgelesen

Visual trap between ausgelegten and ausgelesen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ausgelegten is [ˈaʊ̯sɡəˌleːktn̩] while ausgelesen is [ˈaʊ̯sɡəˌleːzn̩]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86754, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ausgelegten is recorded at frequency rank #43,728, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯sɡəˌleːktn̩]. ausgelesen is at rank #43,026, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯sɡəˌleːzn̩].

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 86754, this pair ranks #89,433 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ausgelegten vs ausgelesen

Shared letters: aeglnsu. Private to "ausgelegten": t. Private to "ausgelesen": -.

"ausgelegten" · 11 letters · shape VVCCVCVCCVC  ·  "ausgelesen" · 10 letters · shape VVCCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ausgelegtenasugelegten · augselegten · auseglegten · ausgeelgten · ausgelegetn · ausgeleggten · ausgelegtenn · ausgelegtne
  • ausgelesenasugelesen · augselesen · auseglesen · ausgeelsen · ausgeleesn · ausgelesenn · ausgelesne · ausgelessen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ausgelegten" for "ausgelesen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ausgelegten" is an adjective and "ausgelesen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ausgelegten" or "ausgelesen" show up more?
"ausgelesen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,026 in our German list, against #43,728 for "ausgelegten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "ausgelegten" and "ausgelesen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ausgelegten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ausgelesen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #89,433 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ausgelegten" and "ausgelesen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aufgelegten vs ausgelegten". 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 #89,433 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