mangelhaftvsmangelhafteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“mangelhaft” and “mangelhafte” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,640
“mangelhaft” frequency rank
#22,821
“mangelhafte” frequency rank
42461
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mangelhaft mangelhafte
Definition Mängel aufweisend Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs mangelhaft

Where the eye mixes mangelhaft and mangelhafte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. mangelhaft runs 10 letters (CVCCVCCVCC) against mangelhafte's 11 (CVCCVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
mangelhaft
11 ch
mangelhafte

Visual trap between mangelhaft and mangelhafte

A purely visual mix-up. mangelhaft ([ˈmaŋl̩haft]) and mangelhafte ([ˈmaŋl̩haftə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “mangelhaft” sits inside “mangelhafte”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42461, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mangelhaft is recorded at frequency rank #19,640, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmaŋl̩haft]. mangelhafte is at rank #22,821, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmaŋl̩haftə].

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 42461, this pair ranks #1,448,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mangelhaft vs mangelhafte

Shared letters: aefghlmnt. Private to "mangelhaft": -. Private to "mangelhafte": -.

"mangelhaft" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC  ·  "mangelhafte" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mangelhaft ← amngelhaft · magnelhaft · maneglhaft · mangehlaft · mangelahft · mangelhafft · mangelhaftt · mangelhatf
  • mangelhafte ← amngelhafte · magnelhafte · maneglhafte · mangehlafte · mangelahfte · mangelhafet · mangelhaffte · mangelhaftte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mangelhaft" and "mangelhafte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaŋl̩haft] versus [ˈmaŋl̩haftə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mangelhaft" vs "mangelhafte" - which ranks higher?
"mangelhaft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,640 in our German list, against #22,821 for "mangelhafte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mangelhaft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mangelhafte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,448,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mangelhaft" and "mangelhafte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mangelhafte vs mangelhaften". 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 #1,448,593 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