gebundenevsgefundenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#21,979
“gebundene” frequency rank
#443
“gefunden” frequency rank
22422
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gebundene gefunden
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gebunden Partizip Perfekt des Verbs finden

Where the eye mixes gebundene and gefunden

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. gebundene runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVCV) against gefunden's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
gebundene
8 ch
gefunden

Visual trap between gebundene and gefunden

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gebundene is [ɡəˈbʊndənə] while gefunden is [ɡəˈfʊndn̩]. 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 22422, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gebundene is recorded at frequency rank #21,979, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈbʊndənə]. gefunden is at rank #443, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈfʊndn̩].

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 22422, this pair ranks #1,874,377 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gebundene vs gefunden

Shared letters: degnu. Private to "gebundene": b. Private to "gefunden": f.

"gebundene" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV  ·  "gefunden" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gebundeneegbundene · gbeundene · gebbundene · gebnudene · gebudnene · gebunddene · gebundeen · gebundenne
  • gefundenegfunden · geffunden · gefnuden · gefudnen · gefundden · gefundenn · gefundne · gefunedn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gebundene" for "gefunden" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gebundene" is an adjective and "gefunden" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "gebundene" or "gefunden" show up more?
"gefunden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #443 in our German list, against #21,979 for "gebundene". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gebundene" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gefunden" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,874,377 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gebundene" and "gefunden" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gebundene vs Gemünden". 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 #1,874,377 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