GefällevsgemalteTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#19,228
“Gefälle” frequency rank
#40,556
“gemalte” frequency rank
59784
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gefälle gemalte
Definition der Grad der Neigung einer Straße oder eines Geländes Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gemalt

Where the eye mixes Gefälle and gemalte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Gefälle and gemalte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
Gefälle
7 ch
gemalte

Visual trap between Gefälle and gemalte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gefälle is [ɡəˈfɛlə] while gemalte is [ɡəˈmaːltə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59784, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gefälle is recorded at frequency rank #19,228, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈfɛlə]. gemalte is at rank #40,556, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈmaːltə].

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 59784, this pair ranks #811,477 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Gefälle vs gemalte

Shared letters: egl. Private to "Gefälle": fä. Private to "gemalte": amt.

"Gefälle" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "gemalte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gemalte ← egmalte · geamlte · gemalet · gemallte · gemaltte · gematle · gemlate · gemmalte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Gefälle" for "gemalte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gefälle" is a noun and "gemalte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Gefälle" vs "gemalte" - which ranks higher?
"Gefälle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,228 in our German list, against #40,556 for "gemalte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gefälle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gemalte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #811,477 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gefälle" and "gemalte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gemalte vs gestalte". 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 #811,477 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