gelungenevsgesungenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#10,857
“gelungene” frequency rank
#6,541
“gesungen” frequency rank
17398
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gelungene gesungen
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gelungen Partizip Perfekt des Verbs singen

Where the eye mixes gelungene and gesungen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. gelungene runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVCV) against gesungen's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
gelungene
8 ch
gesungen

Visual trap between gelungene and gesungen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gelungene is [ɡəˈlʊŋənə] while gesungen is [ɡəˈzʊŋən]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17398, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gelungene is recorded at frequency rank #10,857, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈlʊŋənə]. gesungen is at rank #6,541, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈzʊŋən].

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 17398, this pair ranks #1,927,745 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gelungene vs gesungen

Shared letters: egnu. Private to "gelungene": l. Private to "gesungen": s.

"gelungene" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV  ·  "gesungen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gelungeneeglungene · gellungene · gelnugene · gelugnene · gelunegne · gelungeen · gelungenne · gelunggene
  • gesungenegsungen · gesnugen · gessungen · gesugnen · gesunegn · gesungenn · gesunggen · gesungne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gelungene" and "gesungen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gelungene" is an adjective and "gesungen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "gelungene" or "gesungen" show up more?
"gesungen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,541 in our German list, against #10,857 for "gelungene". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gelungene" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gesungen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,927,745 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gelungene" and "gesungen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gegangene vs gelungene". 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 #1,927,745 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