gegönntvsgesinntWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: gegönnt is a verb, gesinnt is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gegönnt” is a verb and “gesinnt” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,559
“gegönnt” frequency rank
#45,980
“gesinnt” frequency rank
64539
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gegönnt gesinnt
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs gönnen in einer bestimmten Art gegenüber stehend oder eingestellt

Where the eye mixes gegönnt and gesinnt

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

7 ch
gegönnt
7 ch
gesinnt

Why the eye confuses gegönnt with gesinnt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gegönnt is [ɡəˈɡœnt] while gesinnt is [ɡəˈzɪnt]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64539, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gegönnt is recorded at frequency rank #18,559, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈɡœnt]. gesinnt is at rank #45,980, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈzɪnt].

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 64539, this pair ranks #637,901 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gegönnt vs gesinnt

Shared letters: egnt. Private to "gegönnt": ö. Private to "gesinnt": is.

"gegönnt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "gesinnt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gesinntegsinnt · geisnnt · gesinntt · gesint · gesintn · gesnint · gessinnt · ggesinnt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gegönnt" for "gesinnt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gegönnt" is a verb and "gesinnt" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "gegönnt" or "gesinnt" show up more?
"gegönnt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,559 in our German list, against #45,980 for "gesinnt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gegönnt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gesinnt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #637,901 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gegönnt" and "gesinnt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gesinnt vs gesinnten". 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 #637,901 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