mahlenvsmartenTell them apart

Quick tell: mahlen is a verb, marten is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mahlen” is a verb and “marten” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,068
“mahlen” frequency rank
#43,341
“marten” frequency rank
80409
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mahlen marten
Definition Material (mit einer Mühle) zerkleinern, indem es gerieben und gequetscht wird der Marder

Letter map: mahlen vs marten

Shared letters muted; letters that set mahlen and marten apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. mahlen and marten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
mahlen
6 ch
marten

Grammar separator: mahlen vs marten

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mahlen is averb and martenanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80409, 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]. marten is at rank #43,341, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 80409, this pair ranks #196,207 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mahlen vs marten

Shared letters: aemn. Private to "mahlen": hl. Private to "marten": rt.

"mahlen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "marten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mahlen ← amhlen · maheln · mahhlen · mahlenn · mahllen · mahlne · malhen · mhalen
  • marten ← amrten · maretn · marrten · martenn · martne · martten · matren · mmarten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mahlen" for "marten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mahlen" is a verb and "marten" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mahlen" vs "marten" - which ranks higher?
"mahlen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,068 in our German list, against #43,341 for "marten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mahlen" and "marten".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mahlen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #196,207 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mahlen" and "marten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marten 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 #196,207 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