gebautvsgesätWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,514
“gebaut” frequency rank
#34,127
“gesät” frequency rank
35641
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gebaut gesät
Definition durch Fertigung, Herstellung, Produktion oder Ähnliches entstanden seiend Partizip Perfekt des Verbs säen

Where the eye mixes gebaut and gesät

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gebaut runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against gesät's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
gebaut
5 ch
gesät

Look-alike desk: gebaut vs gesät

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gebaut is [ɡəˈbaʊ̯t] 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35641, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gebaut is recorded at frequency rank #1,514, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈbaʊ̯t]. 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 35641, this pair ranks #1,635,148 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gebaut vs gesät

Shared letters: egt. Private to "gebaut": abu. Private to "gesät": sä.

"gebaut" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "gesät" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gebaut ← egbaut · gbeaut · geabut · gebatu · gebautt · gebbaut · gebuat · ggebaut

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gebaut" for "gesät" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gebaut" is an adjective and "gesät" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "gebaut" vs "gesät" - which ranks higher?
"gebaut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,514 in our German list, against #34,127 for "gesät". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gebaut" 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 #1,635,148 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gebaut" 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 #1,635,148 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