magervsMalernWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mager is a adjective, Malern is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mager” is an adjective and “Malern” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,349
“mager” frequency rank
#40,689
“Malern” frequency rank
62038
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mager Malern
Definition dünn, dürr Dativ Plural des Substantivs Maler

Where the eye mixes mager and Malern

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

5 ch
mager
6 ch
Malern

Look-alike desk: mager vs Malern

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mager is [ˈmaːɡɐ] while Malern is [ˈmaːlɐn]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62038, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mager is recorded at frequency rank #21,349, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmaːɡɐ]. Malern is at rank #40,689, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaːlɐn].

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 62038, this pair ranks #727,476 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mager vs Malern

Shared letters: aemr. Private to "mager": g. Private to "Malern": ln.

"mager" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Malern" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mageramger · maegr · magerr · magger · magre · mgaer · mmager
  • Malernamlern · maelrn · malenr · malernn · malerrn · mallern · malren · mlaern

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mager" and "Malern" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mager" is an adjective and "Malern" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mager" or "Malern"?
"mager" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,349 in our German list, against #40,689 for "Malern". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mager" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Malern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #727,476 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mager" and "Malern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mailen vs Malern". 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 #727,476 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