GänsevsgateTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,160
“Gänse” frequency rank
#12,712
“gate” frequency rank
37872
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gänse gate
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Gans Bewegliche, türähnliche Sperre, die den Zugang zu einem umzäunten oder durch Mauern eingeschlossenen Gelände bildet

Where the eye mixes Gänse and gate

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Gänse runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against gate's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Gänse
4 ch
gate

Why the eye confuses Gänse with gate

A purely visual mix-up. Gänse ([ˈɡɛnzə]) and gate ([ɡeɪt]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gänse is recorded at frequency rank #25,160, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡɛnzə]. gate is at rank #12,712, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡeɪt].

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 37872, this pair ranks #1,578,863 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Gänse vs gate

Shared letters: eg. Private to "Gänse": nsä. Private to "gate": at.

"Gänse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "gate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gate ← agte · gaet · ggate · gtae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Gänse" and "gate" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈɡɛnzə] versus [ɡeɪt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Gänse" or "gate" show up more?
"gate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,712 in our German list, against #25,160 for "Gänse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gänse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,578,863 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gänse" and "gate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gänse vs Gases". 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 #1,578,863 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