machenvsMythenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#104
“machen” frequency rank
#11,100
“Mythen” frequency rank
11204
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature machen Mythen
Definition in einen bestimmten Zustand versetzen Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Mythos

Where the eye mixes machen and Mythen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. machen and Mythen 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
Mythen

Visual trap between machen and Mythen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: machen is [ˈmaxn̩] while Mythen is [ˈmyːtn̩]. 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 11204, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

machen is recorded at frequency rank #104, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmaxn̩]. Mythen is at rank #11,100, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmyːtn̩].

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 11204, this pair ranks #1,971,121 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of machen vs Mythen

Shared letters: ehmn. Private to "machen": ac. Private to "Mythen": ty.

"machen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Mythen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • machen ← amchen · macchen · macehn · machenn · machhen · machne · mahcen · mcahen
  • Mythen ← mmythen · mtyhen · myhten · mytehn · mythenn · mythhen · mythne · mytthen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "machen" and "Mythen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "machen" is a verb and "Mythen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "machen" or "Mythen" show up more?
"machen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #104 in our German list, against #11,100 for "Mythen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "machen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mythen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,971,121 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "machen" and "Mythen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "machen vs mailen". 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 #1,971,121 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