geschriebenvsgeschriebenenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#856
“geschrieben” frequency rank
#17,305
“geschriebenen” frequency rank
18161
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature geschrieben geschriebenen
Definition schriftlich festgehalten Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs geschrieben

Where the eye mixes geschrieben and geschriebenen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 11 letters in sequence.

11 ch
geschrieben
13 ch
geschriebenen

Why the eye confuses geschrieben with geschriebenen

A purely visual mix-up. geschrieben ([ɡəˈʃʁiːbn̩]) and geschriebenen ([ɡəˈʃʁiːbənən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “geschrieben” sits inside “geschriebenen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18161, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

geschrieben is recorded at frequency rank #856, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈʃʁiːbn̩]. geschriebenen is at rank #17,305, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈʃʁiːbənən].

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 18161, this pair ranks #1,920,841 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of geschrieben vs geschriebenen

Shared letters: bceghinrs. Private to "geschrieben": -. Private to "geschriebenen": -.

"geschrieben" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCCVVCVC  ·  "geschriebenen" · 13 letters · shape CVCCCCVVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • geschriebenegschrieben · gecshrieben · gescchrieben · geschhrieben · geschireben · geschreiben · geschribeen · geschriebben
  • geschriebenenegschriebenen · gecshriebenen · gescchriebenen · geschhriebenen · geschirebenen · geschreibenen · geschribeenen · geschriebbenen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "geschrieben" for "geschriebenen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɡəˈʃʁiːbn̩] versus [ɡəˈʃʁiːbənən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "geschrieben" or "geschriebenen"?
"geschrieben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #856 in our German list, against #17,305 for "geschriebenen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "geschrieben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "geschriebenen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,920,841 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "geschrieben" and "geschriebenen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "geschriebenen vs geschriebener". 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 #1,920,841 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