gehenvsgelbenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#209
“gehen” frequency rank
#5,592
“gelben” frequency rank
5801
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gehen gelben
Definition sich schreitend, schrittweise fortbewegen Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gelb

Where the eye mixes gehen and gelben

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
gehen
6 ch
gelben

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gehen is [ˈɡeːən] while gelben is [ˈɡɛlbn̩]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5801, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gehen is recorded at frequency rank #209, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈɡeːən]. gelben is at rank #5,592, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɡɛlbn̩].

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 5801, this pair ranks #1,993,691 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gehen vs gelben

Shared letters: egn. Private to "gehen": h. Private to "gelben": bl.

"gehen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "gelben" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • geheneghen · geehn · gehenn · gehhen · gehne · ggehen · gheen
  • gelbeneglben · geblen · gelbben · gelbenn · gelbne · gelebn · gellben · ggelben

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gehen" and "gelben" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gehen" is a verb and "gelben" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gehen" or "gelben"?
"gehen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #209 in our German list, against #5,592 for "gelben". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list