gebanntvsgekonntTell them apart

Quick tell: gebannt is a verb, gekonnt is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#11,239
“gebannt” frequency rank
#11,879
“gekonnt” frequency rank
23118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gebannt gekonnt
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs bannen große Fähigkeiten, etwa handwerklicher oder technischer Art, unter Beweis stellend

Where the eye mixes gebannt and gekonnt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. gebannt and gekonnt follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
gebannt
7 ch
gekonnt

Visual trap between gebannt and gekonnt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gebannt is [ɡəˈbant] while gekonnt is [ɡəˈkɔnt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gebannt is recorded at frequency rank #11,239, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈbant]. gekonnt is at rank #11,879, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈkɔnt].

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 23118, this pair ranks #1,865,557 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gebannt vs gekonnt

Shared letters: egnt. Private to "gebannt": ab. Private to "gekonnt": ko.

"gebannt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "gekonnt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gebannt ← egbannt · gbeannt · geabnnt · gebanntt · gebant · gebantn · gebbannt · gebnant
  • gekonnt ← egkonnt · gekkonnt · geknont · gekonntt · gekont · gekontn · geoknnt · ggekonnt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gebannt" and "gekonnt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gebannt" is a verb and "gekonnt" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "gebannt" or "gekonnt" show up more?
"gebannt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,239 in our German list, against #11,879 for "gekonnt". 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 "gebannt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gekonnt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,865,557 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gebannt" and "gekonnt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gekonnt vs gesinnt". 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 #1,865,557 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