Which to use
“mähen” is a verb and “manchen” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,426
- “mähen” frequency rank
- #2,117
- “manchen” frequency rank
- 29543
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mähen | manchen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | mit der Sense, Sichel, mit einer Mähmaschine Pflanzen bis zum Ansatz dicht über dem Erdboden wegschneiden | Genitiv Singular Maskulinum des Indefinitpronomens manch |
Where the eye mixes mähen and manchen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mähen runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against manchen's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses mähen with manchen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mähen is [ˈmɛːən] while manchen is [ˈmançn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29543, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mähen is recorded at frequency rank #27,426, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛːən]. manchen is at rank #2,117, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈmançn̩].
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 29543, this pair ranks #1,764,892 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mähen vs manchen
Shared letters: ehmn. Private to "mähen": ä. Private to "manchen": ac.
"mähen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "manchen" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- manchen ← amnchen · macnhen · mancchen · mancehn · manchenn · manchhen · manchne · manhcen
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mähen" and "manchen" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "mähen" or "manchen" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "mähen" and "manchen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mähen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "manchen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,764,892 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mähen" and "manchen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mähen 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 #1,764,892 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.