manchevsMascheTell them apart

Quick tell: manche is a unknown, Masche is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“manche” is an unknown and “Masche” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#834
“manche” frequency rank
#16,778
“Masche” frequency rank
17612
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manche Masche
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum attributiv des Indefinitpronomens manch eine aus Garn, Faden, Draht oder Ähnlichem gefertigte Schlinge, die beim Stricken, Häkeln oder durch Verknüpfen entsteht

Where the eye mixes manche and Masche

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
manche
6 ch
Masche

Look-alike desk: manche vs Masche

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: manche is [ˈmançə] while Masche is [ˈmaʃə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “manche” becomes s in “Masche”, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17612, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manche is recorded at frequency rank #834, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈmançə]. Masche is at rank #16,778, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaʃə].

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 17612, this pair ranks #1,925,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of manche vs Masche

Shared letters: acehm. Private to "manche": n. Private to "Masche": s.

"manche" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "Masche" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mancheamnche · macnhe · mancche · manceh · manchhe · manhce · mannche · mmanche
  • Mascheamsche · macshe · mascche · masceh · maschhe · mashce · massche · mmasche

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "manche" and "Masche" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "manche" is an unknown and "Masche" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "manche" vs "Masche" - which ranks higher?
"manche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #834 in our German list, against #16,778 for "Masche". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Masche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,925,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manche" and "Masche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Masche vs muscle". 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 #1,925,851 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