MangelvsmangeltWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#4,290
“Mangel” frequency rank
#13,894
“mangelt” frequency rank
18184
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mangel mangelt
Definition unzureichende Menge oder unzureichendes Ausmaß von etwas 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs mangeln

Where the eye mixes Mangel and mangelt

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

6 ch
Mangel
7 ch
mangelt

Why the eye confuses Mangel with mangelt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Mangel is [ˈmaŋl̩] while mangelt is [ˈmaŋl̩t]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Mangel” sits inside “mangelt”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18184, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mangel is recorded at frequency rank #4,290, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaŋl̩]. mangelt is at rank #13,894, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmaŋl̩t].

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 18184, this pair ranks #1,920,636 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mangel vs mangelt

Shared letters: aeglmn. Private to "Mangel": -. Private to "mangelt": t.

"Mangel" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mangelt" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mangel ← amngel · magnel · manegl · mangell · manggel · mangle · manngel · mmangel
  • mangelt ← amngelt · magnelt · maneglt · mangellt · mangeltt · mangetl · manggelt · manglet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Mangel" for "mangelt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mangel" is a noun and "mangelt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Mangel" vs "mangelt" - which ranks higher?
"Mangel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,290 in our German list, against #13,894 for "mangelt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Mangel" and "mangelt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mangel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mangelt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,920,636 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mangel" and "mangelt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mangelt vs munkelt". 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 #1,920,636 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