gefallenvsGemäldenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: gefallen is a adjective, Gemälden is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#904
“gefallen” frequency rank
#23,149
“Gemälden” frequency rank
24053
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gefallen Gemälden
Definition im Krieg durch Feindeinwirkung gestorben Dativ Plural des Substantivs Gemälde

Where the eye mixes gefallen and Gemälden

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. gefallen and Gemälden follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
gefallen
8 ch
Gemälden

Look-alike desk: gefallen vs Gemälden

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gefallen is [ɡəˈfalən] while Gemälden is [ɡəˈmɛːldn̩]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24053, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gefallen is recorded at frequency rank #904, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈfalən]. Gemälden is at rank #23,149, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈmɛːldn̩].

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 24053, this pair ranks #1,852,980 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gefallen vs Gemälden

Shared letters: egln. Private to "gefallen": af. Private to "Gemälden": dmä.

"gefallen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "Gemälden" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gefallen ← egfallen · geafllen · gefaleln · gefalen · gefallenn · gefallne · geffallen · geflalen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gefallen" for "Gemälden" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gefallen" is an adjective and "Gemälden" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "gefallen" vs "Gemälden" - which ranks higher?
"gefallen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #904 in our German list, against #23,149 for "Gemälden". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gefallen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gemälden" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,852,980 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gefallen" and "Gemälden" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gemahlen vs Gemälden". 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 #1,852,980 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