GefühlevsgefülltTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#2,339
“Gefühle” frequency rank
#5,084
“gefüllt” frequency rank
7423
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gefühle gefüllt
Definition Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Gefühl voll gemacht, voll geworden, keinen Platz mehr bietend

Where the eye mixes Gefühle and gefüllt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Gefühle
7 ch
gefüllt

Why the eye confuses Gefühle with gefüllt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gefühle is [ɡəˈfyːlə] while gefüllt is [ɡəˈfʏlt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 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 7423, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gefühle is recorded at frequency rank #2,339, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈfyːlə]. gefüllt is at rank #5,084, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈfʏlt].

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 7423, this pair ranks #1,988,215 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Gefühle vs gefüllt

Shared letters: efglü. Private to "Gefühle": h. Private to "gefüllt": t.

"Gefühle" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "gefüllt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Gefühle" and "gefüllt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gefühle" is a noun and "gefüllt" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Gefühle" or "gefüllt"?
"Gefühle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,339 in our German list, against #5,084 for "gefüllt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gefühle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gefüllt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,988,215 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gefühle" and "gefüllt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gefühls vs gefüllt". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,988,215 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