mailenvsmartenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#49,065
“mailen” frequency rank
#43,341
“marten” frequency rank
92406
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mailen marten
Definition eine E-Mail versenden, schicken der Marder

Letter map: mailen vs marten

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

6 ch
mailen
6 ch
marten

Grammar separator: mailen vs marten

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mailen 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 92406, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mailen is recorded at frequency rank #49,065, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛɪ̯lən]. 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 92406, this pair ranks #30,061 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mailen vs marten

Shared letters: aemn. Private to "mailen": il. Private to "marten": rt.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mailen ← amilen · maieln · mailenn · maillen · mailne · malien · mialen · mmailen
  • marten ← amrten · maretn · marrten · martenn · martne · martten · matren · mmarten

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mailen" and "marten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mailen" is a verb and "marten" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mailen" or "marten"?
"marten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,341 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mailen" 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 #30,061 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mailen" and "marten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Madsen 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 #30,061 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