gelegtenvsgelittenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: gelegten is a adjective, gelitten is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#39,961
“gelegten” frequency rank
#10,288
“gelitten” frequency rank
50249
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gelegten gelitten
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gelegt Partizip Perfekt des Verbs leiden

Where the eye mixes gelegten and gelitten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
gelegten
8 ch
gelitten

Why the eye confuses gelegten with gelitten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gelegten is [ɡəˈleːktn̩] while gelitten is [ɡəˈlɪtn̩]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50249, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gelegten is recorded at frequency rank #39,961, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈleːktn̩]. gelitten is at rank #10,288, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈlɪtn̩].

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 50249, this pair ranks #1,180,891 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gelegten vs gelitten

Shared letters: eglnt. Private to "gelegten": -. Private to "gelitten": i.

"gelegten" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "gelitten" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gelegteneglegten · geelgten · gelegetn · geleggten · gelegtenn · gelegtne · gelegtten · geletgen
  • gelitteneglitten · geiltten · geliten · gelitetn · gelittenn · gelittne · gellitten · geltiten

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gelegten" and "gelitten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gelegten" is an adjective and "gelitten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "gelegten" or "gelitten" show up more?
"gelitten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,288 in our German list, against #39,961 for "gelegten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gelegten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gelitten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,180,891 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gelegten" and "gelitten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gelegten vs gelobten". 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 #1,180,891 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