Which to use
“Made” is a noun and “malen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,362
- “Made” frequency rank
- #5,735
- “malen” frequency rank
- 13097
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Made | malen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Larve einer Fliege | mit Farbe bestreichen, anstreichen; mit Farbe bunt verzieren |
Where the eye mixes Made and malen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Made runs 4 letters (CVCV) against malen's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: Made vs malen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Made is [ˈmaːdə] while malen is [ˈmaːlən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13097, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Made is recorded at frequency rank #7,362, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaːdə]. malen is at rank #5,735, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmaːlən].
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 13097, this pair ranks #1,960,144 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Made vs malen
Shared letters: aem. Private to "Made": d. Private to "malen": ln.
"Made" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "malen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Made" and "malen" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "Made" or "malen" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "Made" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,960,144 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Made" and "malen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Made vs Matze". 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 #1,960,144 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.