gekauftvsgekauftenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,451
“gekauft” frequency rank
#23,530
“gekauften” frequency rank
24981
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gekauft gekauften
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs kaufen Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gekauft

Where the eye mixes gekauft and gekauften

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

7 ch
gekauft
9 ch
gekauften

Look-alike desk: gekauft vs gekauften

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gekauft is [ɡəˈkaʊ̯ft] while gekauften is [ɡəˈkaʊ̯ftn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “gekauft” sits inside “gekauften”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24981, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gekauft is recorded at frequency rank #1,451, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈkaʊ̯ft]. gekauften is at rank #23,530, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈkaʊ̯ftn̩].

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 24981, this pair ranks #1,839,837 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gekauft vs gekauften

Shared letters: aefgktu. Private to "gekauft": -. Private to "gekauften": n.

"gekauft" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC  ·  "gekauften" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gekauftegkauft · geakuft · gekafut · gekaufft · gekauftt · gekautf · gekkauft · gekuaft
  • gekauftenegkauften · geakuften · gekafuten · gekaufetn · gekaufften · gekauftenn · gekauftne · gekauftten

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gekauft" and "gekauften" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gekauft" is a verb and "gekauften" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gekauft" or "gekauften"?
"gekauft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,451 in our German list, against #23,530 for "gekauften". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gekauft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gekauften" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,839,837 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gekauft" and "gekauften" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gekauften vs geklauten". 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 #1,839,837 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