machenvsmachineWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#104
“machen” frequency rank
#12,337
“machine” frequency rank
12441
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature machen machine
Definition in einen bestimmten Zustand versetzen ein Apparat mit vielen beweglichen Teilen; gestaltet um eine Aufgabe zu erfüllen.

Letter map: machen vs machine

Shared letters muted; letters that set machen and machine apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. machen runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against machine's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
machen
7 ch
machine

Part-of-speech tell for machen / machine

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: machen is averb and machineanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12441, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

machen is recorded at frequency rank #104, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmaxn̩]. machine is at rank #12,337, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 12441, this pair ranks #1,964,180 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of machen vs machine

Shared letters: acehmn. Private to "machen": -. Private to "machine": i.

"machen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "machine" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • machen ← amchen · macchen · macehn · machenn · machhen · machne · mahcen · mcahen
  • machine ← amchine · macchine · machhine · machien · machinne · machnie · macihne · mahcine

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "machen" and "machine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "machen" is a verb and "machine" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "machen" vs "machine" - which ranks higher?
"machen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #104 in our German list, against #12,337 for "machine". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "machen" and "machine".

  • Full dictionary entry for "machen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "machine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,964,180 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "machen" and "machine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "machine vs puzzles". 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 #1,964,180 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