MädchenvsMadsenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#534
“Mädchen” frequency rank
#48,315
“Madsen” frequency rank
48849
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mädchen Madsen
Definition weibliches Kind dänischer Familienname

Letter map: Mädchen vs Madsen

Shared letters muted; letters that set Mädchen and Madsen apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. Mädchen runs 7 letters (CVCCCVC) against Madsen's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Mädchen
6 ch
Madsen

Grammar separator: Mädchen vs Madsen

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Mädchen is anoun and Madsenaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48849, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mädchen is recorded at frequency rank #534, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɛːtçən]. 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 48849, this pair ranks #1,233,301 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mädchen vs Madsen

Shared letters: demn. Private to "Mädchen": chä. Private to "Madsen": as.

"Mädchen" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "Madsen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Madsen ← amdsen · maddsen · madesn · madsenn · madsne · madssen · masden · mdasen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Mädchen" and "Madsen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mädchen" is a noun and "Madsen" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Mädchen" or "Madsen" show up more?
"Mädchen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #534 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mädchen" 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 #1,233,301 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mädchen" 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 #1,233,301 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