GefährtevsgewährteConfusable pair

Quick tell: Gefährte is a noun, gewährte is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Gefährte” is a noun and “gewährte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,349
“Gefährte” frequency rank
#17,014
“gewährte” frequency rank
53363
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gefährte gewährte
Definition Person, die einer anderen Person durch Zuneigung oder Schicksal verbunden ist und mit der man viel Zeit verbringt, zum Beispiel auch, indem man gemeinsam etwas unternimmt Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs gewährt

Where the eye mixes Gefährte and gewährte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. Gefährte and gewährte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
Gefährte
8 ch
gewährte

Look-alike desk: Gefährte vs gewährte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gefährte is [ɡəˈfɛːɐ̯tə] while gewährte is [ɡəˈvɛːɐ̯tə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - f in “Gefährte” becomes w in “gewährte”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53363, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gefährte is recorded at frequency rank #36,349, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈfɛːɐ̯tə]. gewährte is at rank #17,014, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈvɛːɐ̯tə].

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 53363, this pair ranks #1,060,955 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Gefährte vs gewährte

Shared letters: eghrtä. Private to "Gefährte": f. Private to "gewährte": w.

"Gefährte" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV  ·  "gewährte" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Gefährte" for "gewährte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gefährte" is a noun and "gewährte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Gefährte" or "gewährte"?
"gewährte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,014 in our German list, against #36,349 for "Gefährte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gefährte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gewährte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,060,955 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gefährte" and "gewährte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gefährte vs genährt". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,060,955 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