machvsmalaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#687
“mach” frequency rank
#45,440
“mala” frequency rank
46127
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mach mala
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ des Verbs machen verkehrt, umgekehrt, gegenteilig, entgegengesetzt

Letter map: mach vs mala

Shared letters muted; letters that set mach and mala apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. mach (CVCC) and mala (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
mach
4 ch
mala

Grammar separator: mach vs mala

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mach is averb and malaanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46127, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mach is recorded at frequency rank #687, classified as averb, pronounced [max]. mala is at rank #45,440, tagged as anadj.

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 46127, this pair ranks #1,329,707 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mach vs mala

Shared letters: am. Private to "mach": ch. Private to "mala": l.

"mach" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mach ← amch · macch · machh · mahc · mcah · mmach
  • mala ← maal · malla · mlaa · mmala

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mach" and "mala" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mach" is a verb and "mala" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mach" or "mala"?
"mach" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #687 in our German list, against #45,440 for "mala". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "mach" vs "mala" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mach" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mala" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,329,707 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mach" and "mala" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mala vs mora". 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 #1,329,707 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