gedachtvsgemachteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#855
“gedacht” frequency rank
#15,367
“gemachte” frequency rank
16222
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gedacht gemachte
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs denken Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gemacht

Where the eye mixes gedacht and gemachte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
gedacht
8 ch
gemachte

Why the eye confuses gedacht with gemachte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gedacht is [ɡəˈdaxt] while gemachte is [ɡəˈmaxtə]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16222, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gedacht is recorded at frequency rank #855, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈdaxt]. gemachte is at rank #15,367, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈmaxtə].

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 16222, this pair ranks #1,937,582 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gedacht vs gemachte

Shared letters: aceght. Private to "gedacht": d. Private to "gemachte": m.

"gedacht" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "gemachte" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gedachtegdacht · gdeacht · geadcht · gedaccht · gedachht · gedachtt · gedacth · gedahct
  • gemachteegmachte · geamchte · gemacchte · gemachet · gemachhte · gemachtte · gemacthe · gemahcte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gedacht" and "gemachte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gedacht" is a verb and "gemachte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "gedacht" or "gemachte" show up more?
"gedacht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #855 in our German list, against #15,367 for "gemachte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "gedacht" and "gemachte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gedacht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gemachte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,937,582 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gedacht" and "gemachte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gemachte vs gemäht". 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 #1,937,582 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