GefühlenvsgefülltenConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#8,719
“Gefühlen” frequency rank
#16,438
“gefüllten” frequency rank
25157
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gefühlen gefüllten
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Gefühl Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gefüllt

Where the eye mixes Gefühlen and gefüllten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. Gefühlen runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against gefüllten's 9 (CVCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
Gefühlen
9 ch
gefüllten

Visual trap between Gefühlen and gefüllten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gefühlen is [ɡəˈfyːlən] while gefüllten is [ɡəˈfʏltn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25157, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gefühlen is recorded at frequency rank #8,719, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈfyːlən]. gefüllten is at rank #16,438, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈfʏltn̩].

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 25157, this pair ranks #1,837,334 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Gefühlen vs gefüllten

Shared letters: efglnü. Private to "Gefühlen": h. Private to "gefüllten": t.

"Gefühlen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "gefüllten" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Gefühlen" and "gefüllten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gefühlen" is a noun and "gefüllten" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Gefühlen" or "gefüllten"?
"Gefühlen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,719 in our German list, against #16,438 for "gefüllten". 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 "Gefühlen" and "gefüllten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gefühlen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gefüllten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,837,334 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gefühlen" and "gefüllten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "geballten vs gefüllten". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,837,334 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