energyvsmaluWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: energy is a noun, malu is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“energy” is a noun and “malu” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,353
“energy” frequency rank
#46,130
“malu” frequency rank
54483
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature energy malu
Definition Fähigkeit Arbeit zu verrichten: Energie erst, erst einmal

Letter map: energy vs malu

Shared letters muted; letters that set energy and malu apart highlighted. No shared letter run. energy runs 6 letters (VCVCCV) against malu's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
energy
4 ch
malu

Grammar separator: energy vs malu

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: energy is anoun and maluanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54483, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

energy is recorded at frequency rank #8,353, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. malu is at rank #46,130, tagged as anadv, pronounced […].

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 54483, this pair ranks #1,017,134 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of energy vs malu

Shared letters: none. Private to "energy": egnry. Private to "malu": almu.

"energy" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "malu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • energyeenrgy · enegry · energgy · energyy · enerrgy · eneryg · ennergy · enregy
  • maluamlu · mallu · mlau · mmalu

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "energy" for "malu" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "energy" is a noun and "malu" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "energy" or "malu" show up more?
"energy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,353 in our German list, against #46,130 for "malu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "energy" and "malu". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "energy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "malu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,017,134 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "energy" and "malu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malu vs puzzles". 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 #1,017,134 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