manchenvsMascheWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#2,117
“manchen” frequency rank
#16,778
“Masche” frequency rank
18895
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manchen Masche
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum des Indefinitpronomens manch eine aus Garn, Faden, Draht oder Ähnlichem gefertigte Schlinge, die beim Stricken, Häkeln oder durch Verknüpfen entsteht

Where the eye mixes manchen and Masche

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. manchen runs 7 letters (CVCCCVC) against Masche's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
manchen
6 ch
Masche

Why the eye confuses manchen with Masche

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: manchen is [ˈmançn̩] while Masche is [ˈmaʃə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18895, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manchen is recorded at frequency rank #2,117, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈmançn̩]. 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 18895, this pair ranks #1,913,772 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of manchen vs Masche

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

"manchen" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "Masche" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manchen ← amnchen · macnhen · mancchen · mancehn · manchenn · manchhen · manchne · manhcen
  • Masche ← amsche · macshe · mascche · masceh · maschhe · mashce · massche · mmasche

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "manchen" and "Masche" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "manchen" is an unknown and "Masche" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "manchen" or "Masche" show up more?
"manchen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,117 in our German list, against #16,778 for "Masche". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "manchen" 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 #1,913,772 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manchen" 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 #1,913,772 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