gegründetvsgegründetenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,295
“gegründet” frequency rank
#10,477
“gegründeten” frequency rank
12772
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gegründet gegründeten
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs gründen Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gegründet

Where the eye mixes gegründet and gegründeten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. gegründet runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVC) against gegründeten's 11 (CVCCVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
gegründet
11 ch
gegründeten

Visual trap between gegründet and gegründeten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gegründet is [ɡəˈɡʁʏndət] while gegründeten is [ɡəˈɡʁʏndətn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “gegründet” sits inside “gegründeten”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12772, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gegründet is recorded at frequency rank #2,295, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈɡʁʏndət]. gegründeten is at rank #10,477, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈɡʁʏndətn̩].

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 12772, this pair ranks #1,962,128 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gegründet vs gegründeten

Shared letters: degnrtü. Private to "gegründet": -. Private to "gegründeten": -.

"gegründet" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "gegründeten" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gegründet" and "gegründeten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gegründet" is a verb and "gegründeten" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gegründet" or "gegründeten"?
"gegründet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,295 in our German list, against #10,477 for "gegründeten". 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 "gegründet" and "gegründeten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gegründet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gegründeten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,962,128 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gegründet" and "gegründeten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gegründet vs gerundet". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,962,128 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