gleichenvsgleichesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: gleichen is a verb, gleiches is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#763
“gleichen” frequency rank
#7,479
“gleiches” frequency rank
8242
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gleichen gleiches
Definition wenige oder keine Unterschiede zu einer anderen Sache aufweisen Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gleich

Where the eye mixes gleichen and gleiches

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

8 ch
gleichen
8 ch
gleiches

Look-alike desk: gleichen vs gleiches

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gleichen is [ˈɡlaɪ̯çn̩] while gleiches is [ˈɡlaɪ̯çəs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “gleichen” becomes s in “gleiches”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8242, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gleichen is recorded at frequency rank #763, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈɡlaɪ̯çn̩]. gleiches is at rank #7,479, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɡlaɪ̯çəs].

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 8242, this pair ranks #1,985,068 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gleichen vs gleiches

Shared letters: ceghil. Private to "gleichen": n. Private to "gleiches": s.

"gleichen" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCCVC  ·  "gleiches" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gleichen ← gelichen · ggleichen · glecihen · gleicchen · gleicehn · gleichenn · gleichhen · gleichne
  • gleiches ← geliches · ggleiches · glecihes · gleicches · gleicehs · gleichess · gleichhes · gleichse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gleichen" and "gleiches" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gleichen" is a verb and "gleiches" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "gleichen" or "gleiches" show up more?
"gleichen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #763 in our German list, against #7,479 for "gleiches". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gleichen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gleiches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,985,068 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gleichen" and "gleiches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gleiches vs Gleichnis". 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 #1,985,068 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