GefühlvsgefühlteTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#762
“Gefühl” frequency rank
#15,634
“gefühlte” frequency rank
16396
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gefühl gefühlte
Definition das subjektive Erleben von Erregung und hirnchemischer Aktivität Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gefühlt

Where the eye mixes Gefühl and gefühlte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Gefühl runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against gefühlte's 8 (CVCVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Gefühl
8 ch
gefühlte

Visual trap between Gefühl and gefühlte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gefühl is [ɡəˈfyːl] while gefühlte is [ɡəˈfyːltə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Gefühl” sits inside “gefühlte”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16396, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gefühl is recorded at frequency rank #762, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈfyːl]. gefühlte is at rank #15,634, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈfyːltə].

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 16396, this pair ranks #1,936,193 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Gefühl vs gefühlte

Shared letters: efghlü. Private to "Gefühl": -. Private to "gefühlte": t.

"Gefühl" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "gefühlte" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Gefühl" and "gefühlte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gefühl" is a noun and "gefühlte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Gefühl" or "gefühlte"?
"Gefühl" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #762 in our German list, against #15,634 for "gefühlte". 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 "Gefühl" and "gefühlte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gefühl" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gefühlte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,936,193 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gefühl" and "gefühlte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gefühls vs gefühlte". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,936,193 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