makevsmaluTell them apart

Quick tell: make is a verb, malu is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“make” is a verb and “malu” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,200
“make” frequency rank
#46,130
“malu” frequency rank
51330
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature make malu
Definition machen, herstellen erst, erst einmal

Letter map: make vs malu

Shared letters muted; letters that set make and malu apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
make
4 ch
malu

Role in the sentence - make and malu

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: make is averb and maluanadverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51330, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

make is recorded at frequency rank #5,200, classified as averb, pronounced [meɪk]. malu is at rank #46,130, tagged as anadv, 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 51330, this pair ranks #1,139,612 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of make vs malu

Shared letters: am. Private to "make": ek. Private to "malu": lu.

"make" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "malu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • makeamke · maek · makke · mkae · mmake
  • maluamlu · mallu · mlau · mmalu

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "make" for "malu" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "make" is a verb and "malu" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "make" or "malu" show up more?
"make" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,200 in our German list, against #46,130 for "malu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "make" and "malu". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "make" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "malu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,139,612 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "make" and "malu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malu 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 #1,139,612 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