machenvsMadsenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#104
“machen” frequency rank
#48,315
“Madsen” frequency rank
48419
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature machen Madsen
Definition in einen bestimmten Zustand versetzen dänischer Familienname

Letter map: machen vs Madsen

Shared letters muted; letters that set machen and Madsen apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. machen and Madsen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
machen
6 ch
Madsen

Role in the sentence - machen and Madsen

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: machen is averb and Madsenaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48419, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

machen is recorded at frequency rank #104, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmaxn̩]. Madsen is at rank #48,315, tagged as aname, 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 48419, this pair ranks #1,249,268 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of machen vs Madsen

Shared letters: aemn. Private to "machen": ch. Private to "Madsen": ds.

"machen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Madsen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • machen ← amchen · macchen · macehn · machenn · machhen · machne · mahcen · mcahen
  • Madsen ← amdsen · maddsen · madesn · madsenn · madsne · madssen · masden · mdasen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "machen" and "Madsen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "machen" is a verb and "Madsen" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "machen" or "Madsen"?
"machen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #104 in our German list, against #48,315 for "Madsen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "machen" and "Madsen". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "machen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Madsen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,249,268 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "machen" and "Madsen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Madsen 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 #1,249,268 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