gesätvsgetanTell them apart

Which to use

“gesät” and “getan” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,127
“gesät” frequency rank
#1,182
“getan” frequency rank
35309
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gesät getan
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs säen Partizip Perfekt des Verbs tun

Where the eye mixes gesät and getan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gesät and getan follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
gesät
5 ch
getan

Look-alike desk: gesät vs getan

A purely visual mix-up. gesät ([ɡəˈzɛːt]) and getan ([ɡəˈtaːn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35309, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gesät is recorded at frequency rank #34,127, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈzɛːt]. getan is at rank #1,182, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈtaːn].

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 35309, this pair ranks #1,643,043 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gesät vs getan

Shared letters: egt. Private to "gesät": sä. Private to "getan": an.

"gesät" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "getan" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • getan ← egtan · geatn · getann · getna · gettan · ggetan · gtean

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gesät" and "getan" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ɡəˈzɛːt] versus [ɡəˈtaːn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gesät" or "getan"?
"getan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,182 in our German list, against #34,127 for "gesät". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "gesät" and "getan" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gesät" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "getan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,643,043 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gesät" and "getan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gemäht vs gesät". 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 #1,643,043 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