gearvsgebarWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#21,261
“gear” frequency rank
#36,346
“gebar” frequency rank
57607
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gear gebar
Definition Getriebe 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs gebären

Where the eye mixes gear and gebar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
gear
5 ch
gebar

Why the eye confuses gear with gebar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gear is [ɡɪɚ] while gebar is [ɡəˈbaːɐ̯]. 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 57607, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gear is recorded at frequency rank #21,261, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡɪɚ]. gebar is at rank #36,346, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈbaːɐ̯].

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 57607, this pair ranks #894,873 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gear vs gebar

Shared letters: aegr. Private to "gear": -. Private to "gebar": b.

"gear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "gebar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gearegar · gaer · gearr · ggear
  • gebaregbar · gbear · geabr · gebarr · gebbar · gebra · ggebar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gear" for "gebar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gear" is a noun and "gebar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gear" or "gebar"?
"gear" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,261 in our German list, against #36,346 for "gebar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gebar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #894,873 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gear" and "gebar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "GBA vs gebar". 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 #894,873 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