MadsenvsmailenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#48,315
“Madsen” frequency rank
#49,065
“mailen” frequency rank
97380
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Madsen mailen
Definition dänischer Familienname eine E-Mail versenden, schicken

Letter map: Madsen vs mailen

Shared letters muted; letters that set Madsen and mailen apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. Madsen (CVCCVC) and mailen (CVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
Madsen
6 ch
mailen

Role in the sentence - Madsen and mailen

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Madsen is aname and mailenaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 97380, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Madsen is recorded at frequency rank #48,315, classified as aname, pronounced […]. mailen is at rank #49,065, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛɪ̯lən].

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 97380, this pair ranks #3,972 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Madsen vs mailen

Shared letters: aemn. Private to "Madsen": ds. Private to "mailen": il.

"Madsen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mailen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Madsen ← amdsen · maddsen · madesn · madsenn · madsne · madssen · masden · mdasen
  • mailen ← amilen · maieln · mailenn · maillen · mailne · malien · mialen · mmailen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Madsen" and "mailen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Madsen" is a name and "mailen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Madsen" or "mailen" show up more?
"Madsen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #48,315 in our German list, against #49,065 for "mailen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "Madsen" vs "mailen" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Madsen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mailen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,972 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Madsen" and "mailen" 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 #3,972 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