manchesvsMaschenConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#6,560
“manches” frequency rank
#23,614
“Maschen” frequency rank
30174
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manches Maschen
Definition Nominativ Singular Neutrum des Indefinitpronomens manch Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Masche

Where the eye mixes manches and Maschen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. manches and Maschen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
manches
7 ch
Maschen

Visual trap between manches and Maschen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: manches is [ˈmançəs] while Maschen is [ˈmaʃn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30174, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manches is recorded at frequency rank #6,560, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈmançəs]. Maschen is at rank #23,614, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaʃn̩].

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 30174, this pair ranks #1,752,977 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of manches vs Maschen

Shared letters: acehmns. Private to "manches": -. Private to "Maschen": -.

"manches" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "Maschen" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manches ← amnches · macnhes · mancches · mancehs · manchess · manchhes · manchse · manhces
  • Maschen ← amschen · macshen · mascchen · mascehn · maschenn · maschhen · maschne · mashcen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "manches" and "Maschen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "manches" is an unknown and "Maschen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "manches" or "Maschen" show up more?
"manches" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,560 in our German list, against #23,614 for "Maschen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Maschen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,752,977 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manches" and "Maschen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Märsche vs Maschen". 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 #1,752,977 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