gearvsgesätConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#21,261
“gear” frequency rank
#34,127
“gesät” frequency rank
55388
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gear gesät
Definition Getriebe Partizip Perfekt des Verbs säen

Where the eye mixes gear and gesät

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
gear
5 ch
gesät

Why the eye confuses gear with gesät

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gear is [ɡɪɚ] while gesät is [ɡəˈzɛːt]. 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 55388, 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]. gesät is at rank #34,127, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈzɛːt].

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 55388, this pair ranks #981,510 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gear vs gesät

Shared letters: eg. Private to "gear": ar. Private to "gesät": stä.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gearegar · gaer · gearr · ggear

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gear" and "gesät" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gear" is a noun and "gesät" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gear" or "gesät"?
"gear" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,261 in our German list, against #34,127 for "gesät". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gesät" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #981,510 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gear" and "gesät" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gemäht vs gesät". 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 #981,510 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