GebietenvsgeliehenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#3,887
“Gebieten” frequency rank
#22,736
“geliehen” frequency rank
26623
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gebieten geliehen
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Gebiet Partizip Perfekt des Verbs leihen

Where the eye mixes Gebieten and geliehen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Gebieten and geliehen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
Gebieten
8 ch
geliehen

Look-alike desk: Gebieten vs geliehen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gebieten is [ɡəˈbiːtn̩] while geliehen is [ɡəˈliːən]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26623, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gebieten is recorded at frequency rank #3,887, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈbiːtn̩]. geliehen is at rank #22,736, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈliːən].

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 26623, this pair ranks #1,815,136 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Gebieten vs geliehen

Shared letters: egin. Private to "Gebieten": bt. Private to "geliehen": hl.

"Gebieten" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC  ·  "geliehen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Gebietenegbieten · gbeieten · gebbieten · gebeiten · gebieetn · gebietenn · gebietne · gebietten
  • geliehenegliehen · geilehen · geleihen · gelieehn · geliehenn · geliehhen · geliehne · geliheen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Gebieten" and "geliehen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gebieten" is a noun and "geliehen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Gebieten" or "geliehen"?
"Gebieten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,887 in our German list, against #22,736 for "geliehen". 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 "Gebieten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "geliehen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,815,136 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gebieten" and "geliehen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "geliehen vs gerieben". 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 #1,815,136 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