gefahrenvsgefahrenenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,479
“gefahren” frequency rank
#48,167
“gefahrenen” frequency rank
49646
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gefahren gefahrenen
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs fahren Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gefahren

Where the eye mixes gefahren and gefahrenen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. gefahren runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against gefahrenen's 10 (CVCVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
gefahren
10 ch
gefahrenen

Look-alike desk: gefahren vs gefahrenen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gefahren is [ɡəˈfaːʁən] while gefahrenen is [ɡəˈfaːʁənən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “gefahren” sits inside “gefahrenen”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49646, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gefahren is recorded at frequency rank #1,479, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈfaːʁən]. gefahrenen is at rank #48,167, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈfaːʁənən].

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 49646, this pair ranks #1,203,608 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gefahren vs gefahrenen

Shared letters: aefghnr. Private to "gefahren": -. Private to "gefahrenen": -.

"gefahren" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "gefahrenen" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gefahren ← egfahren · geafhren · gefahern · gefahhren · gefahrenn · gefahrne · gefahrren · gefarhen
  • gefahrenen ← egfahrenen · geafhrenen · gefahernen · gefahhrenen · gefahreenn · gefahrenenn · gefahrenne · gefahrennen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gefahren" and "gefahrenen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gefahren" is a verb and "gefahrenen" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "gefahren" vs "gefahrenen" - which ranks higher?
"gefahren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,479 in our German list, against #48,167 for "gefahrenen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gefahren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gefahrenen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,203,608 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gefahren" and "gefahrenen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gefahrenen vs gefrorenen". 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 #1,203,608 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