MängelnvsmangeltWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#27,427
“Mängeln” frequency rank
#13,894
“mangelt” frequency rank
41321
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mängeln mangelt
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Mangel 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs mangeln

Where the eye mixes Mängeln and mangelt

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

7 ch
Mängeln
7 ch
mangelt

Look-alike desk: Mängeln vs mangelt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Mängeln is [ˈmɛŋl̩n] while mangelt is [ˈmaŋl̩t]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41321, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mängeln is recorded at frequency rank #27,427, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɛŋl̩n]. 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 41321, this pair ranks #1,482,964 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mängeln vs mangelt

Shared letters: eglmn. Private to "Mängeln": ä. Private to "mangelt": at.

"Mängeln" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "mangelt" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mangelt ← amngelt · magnelt · maneglt · mangellt · mangeltt · mangetl · manggelt · manglet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Mängeln" and "mangelt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mängeln" is a noun and "mangelt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Mängeln" or "mangelt" show up more?
"mangelt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,894 in our German list, against #27,427 for "Mängeln". 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 "Mängeln" and "mangelt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mängeln" 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 #1,482,964 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mängeln" and "mangelt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mängeln vs Margen". 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 #1,482,964 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