geselligevsgeselligenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,921
“gesellige” frequency rank
#33,083
“geselligen” frequency rank
77004
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gesellige geselligen
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gesellig Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gesellig

Where the eye mixes gesellige and geselligen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

9 ch
gesellige
10 ch
geselligen

Look-alike desk: gesellige vs geselligen

A purely visual mix-up. gesellige ([ɡəˈzɛlɪɡə]) and geselligen ([ɡəˈzɛlɪɡn̩]) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “gesellige” sits inside “geselligen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77004, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gesellige is recorded at frequency rank #43,921, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈzɛlɪɡə]. geselligen is at rank #33,083, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈzɛlɪɡn̩].

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 77004, this pair ranks #270,774 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gesellige vs geselligen

Shared letters: egils. Private to "gesellige": -. Private to "geselligen": n.

"gesellige" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV  ·  "geselligen" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • geselligeegsellige · geesllige · geselige · geselilge · gesellgie · gesellieg · geselligge · geslelige
  • geselligenegselligen · geeslligen · geseligen · geselilgen · gesellgien · geselliegn · geselligenn · geselliggen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gesellige" for "geselligen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɡəˈzɛlɪɡə] versus [ɡəˈzɛlɪɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gesellige" vs "geselligen" - which ranks higher?
"geselligen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,083 in our German list, against #43,921 for "gesellige". 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 "gesellige" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "geselligen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #270,774 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gesellige" and "geselligen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gesellig vs gesellige". 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 #270,774 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