machevsMatzeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#934
“mache” frequency rank
#48,323
“Matze” frequency rank
49257
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mache Matze
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs machen ungesäuertes Fladenbrot, welches während der Passahzeit gegessen wird

Where the eye mixes mache and Matze

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mache and Matze follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
mache
5 ch
Matze

Visual trap between mache and Matze

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mache is [ˈmaxə] while Matze is [ˈmat͡sə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49257, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mache is recorded at frequency rank #934, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmaxə]. Matze is at rank #48,323, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmat͡sə].

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 49257, this pair ranks #1,218,189 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mache vs Matze

Shared letters: aem. Private to "mache": ch. Private to "Matze": tz.

"mache" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Matze" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mache ← amche · macche · maceh · machhe · mahce · mcahe · mmache
  • Matze ← amtze · matez · mattze · matzze · mazte · mmatze · mtaze

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mache" and "Matze" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mache" is a verb and "Matze" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "mache" or "Matze" show up more?
"mache" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #934 in our German list, against #48,323 for "Matze". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mache" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Matze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,218,189 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mache" and "Matze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Matze vs Mette". 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 #1,218,189 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