Which to use
“gelehnt” is a verb and “gelehrte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,430
- “gelehnt” frequency rank
- #19,921
- “gelehrte” frequency rank
- 67351
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gelehnt | gelehrte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partizip Perfekt des Verbs lehnen | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gelehrt |
Where the eye mixes gelehnt and gelehrte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. gelehnt runs 7 letters (CVCVCCC) against gelehrte's 8 (CVCVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between gelehnt and gelehrte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gelehnt is [ɡəˈleːnt] while gelehrte is [ɡəˈleːɐ̯tə]. 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 67351, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gelehnt is recorded at frequency rank #47,430, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈleːnt]. gelehrte is at rank #19,921, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈleːɐ̯tə].
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 67351, this pair ranks #543,004 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gelehnt vs gelehrte
Shared letters: eghlt. Private to "gelehnt": n. Private to "gelehrte": r.
"gelehnt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC · "gelehrte" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "gelehnt" for "gelehrte" ever safe?
Frequency check: "gelehnt" vs "gelehrte" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "gelehnt" and "gelehrte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "gelehnt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gelehrte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #543,004 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gelehnt" and "gelehrte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "geleakt vs gelehnt". 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 #543,004 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.