Which to use
“mahlen” and “mahnen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,068
- “mahlen” frequency rank
- #32,659
- “mahnen” frequency rank
- 69727
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mahlen | mahnen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Material (mit einer Mühle) zerkleinern, indem es gerieben und gequetscht wird | eindringlich zu einem bestimmten, als erforderlich erachteten Handeln und Benehmen auffordern, drängen |
Where the eye mixes mahlen and mahnen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mahlen and mahnen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: mahlen vs mahnen
A purely visual mix-up. mahlen ([ˈmaːlən]) and mahnen ([ˈmaːnən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - l in “mahlen” becomes n in “mahnen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69727, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mahlen is recorded at frequency rank #37,068, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmaːlən]. mahnen is at rank #32,659, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmaːnən].
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 69727, this pair ranks #467,756 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mahlen vs mahnen
Shared letters: aehmn. Private to "mahlen": l. Private to "mahnen": -.
"mahlen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "mahnen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mahlen" and "mahnen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "mahlen" or "mahnen" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "mahlen" and "mahnen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mahlen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mahnen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #467,756 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mahlen" and "mahnen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mahlen 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 #467,756 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.