GelehrtervsgelernterTell them apart

Quick tell: Gelehrter is a noun, gelernter is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Gelehrter” is a noun and “gelernter” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,931
“Gelehrter” frequency rank
#30,079
“gelernter” frequency rank
51010
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gelehrter gelernter
Definition gebildete Person, die über erhebliches Wissen, meist einer bestimmten Fachrichtung, verfügt Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gelernt

Where the eye mixes Gelehrter and gelernter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. Gelehrter and gelernter follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
Gelehrter
9 ch
gelernter

Look-alike desk: Gelehrter vs gelernter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gelehrter is [ɡəˈleːɐ̯tɐ] while gelernter is [ɡəˈlɛʁntɐ]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51010, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gelehrter is recorded at frequency rank #20,931, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈleːɐ̯tɐ]. gelernter is at rank #30,079, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈlɛʁntɐ].

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 51010, this pair ranks #1,151,955 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Gelehrter vs gelernter

Shared letters: eglrt. Private to "Gelehrter": h. Private to "gelernter": n.

"Gelehrter" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCCVC  ·  "gelernter" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Gelehrter ← eglehrter · geelhrter · gelehhrter · gelehretr · gelehrrter · gelehrterr · gelehrtre · gelehrtter
  • gelernter ← eglernter · geelrnter · gelenrter · gelernetr · gelernnter · gelernterr · gelerntre · gelerntter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Gelehrter" for "gelernter" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gelehrter" is a noun and "gelernter" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Gelehrter" vs "gelernter" - which ranks higher?
"Gelehrter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,931 in our German list, against #30,079 for "gelernter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gelehrter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gelernter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,151,955 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gelehrter" and "gelernter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gelernten vs gelernter". 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 #1,151,955 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