GeschäftenvsgeschaltetWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Geschäften is a noun, geschaltet is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Geschäften” is a noun and “geschaltet” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,721
“Geschäften” frequency rank
#16,718
“geschaltet” frequency rank
25439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Geschäften geschaltet
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Geschäft Partizip Perfekt des Verbs schalten

Where the eye mixes Geschäften and geschaltet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. Geschäften and geschaltet follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
Geschäften
10 ch
geschaltet

Look-alike desk: Geschäften vs geschaltet

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Geschäften is [ɡəˈʃɛftn̩] while geschaltet is [ɡəˈʃaltət]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Geschäften is recorded at frequency rank #8,721, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈʃɛftn̩]. geschaltet is at rank #16,718, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈʃaltət].

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 25439, this pair ranks #1,833,273 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Geschäften vs geschaltet

Shared letters: ceghst. Private to "Geschäften": fnä. Private to "geschaltet": al.

"Geschäften" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVC  ·  "geschaltet" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • geschaltetegschaltet · gecshaltet · gescahltet · gescchaltet · geschalett · geschalltet · geschaltett · geschaltte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Geschäften" for "geschaltet" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Geschäften" is a noun and "geschaltet" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Geschäften" vs "geschaltet" - which ranks higher?
"Geschäften" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,721 in our German list, against #16,718 for "geschaltet". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Geschäften" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "geschaltet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,833,273 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Geschäften" and "geschaltet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Geschäftes vs geschaltet". 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 #1,833,273 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