gehangenvsgelungenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#41,839
“gehangen” frequency rank
#3,315
“gelungen” frequency rank
45154
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gehangen gelungen
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs hängen rückblickend betrachtet: positive Erwartung vollständig erfüllend, mit ganz und gar gutem Ergebnis

Where the eye mixes gehangen and gelungen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. gehangen and gelungen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
gehangen
8 ch
gelungen

Look-alike desk: gehangen vs gelungen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gehangen is [ɡəˈhaŋən] while gelungen is [ɡəˈlʊŋən]. 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 45154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gehangen is recorded at frequency rank #41,839, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈhaŋən]. gelungen is at rank #3,315, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈlʊŋən].

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 45154, this pair ranks #1,362,658 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gehangen vs gelungen

Shared letters: egn. Private to "gehangen": ah. Private to "gelungen": lu.

"gehangen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "gelungen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gehangeneghangen · geahngen · gehagnen · gehanegn · gehangenn · gehanggen · gehangne · gehanngen
  • gelungeneglungen · gellungen · gelnugen · gelugnen · gelunegn · gelungenn · gelunggen · gelungne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gehangen" and "gelungen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gehangen" is a verb and "gelungen" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "gehangen" vs "gelungen" - which ranks higher?
"gelungen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,315 in our German list, against #41,839 for "gehangen". 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 "gehangen" and "gelungen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gehangen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gelungen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,362,658 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gehangen" and "gelungen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gegangene vs gehangen". 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 #1,362,658 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