MaschenvsmatchesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#23,614
“Maschen” frequency rank
#17,983
“matches” frequency rank
41597
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Maschen matches
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Masche 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs match

Letter map: Maschen vs matches

Shared letters muted; letters that set Maschen and matches apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. Maschen and matches follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
Maschen
7 ch
matches

Role in the sentence - Maschen and matches

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Maschen is anoun and matchesaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41597, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Maschen is recorded at frequency rank #23,614, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaʃn̩]. matches is at rank #17,983, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 41597, this pair ranks #1,474,700 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Maschen vs matches

Shared letters: acehms. Private to "Maschen": n. Private to "matches": t.

"Maschen" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "matches" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Maschen ← amschen · macshen · mascchen · mascehn · maschenn · maschhen · maschne · mashcen
  • matches ← amtches · macthes · matcches · matcehs · matchess · matchhes · matchse · mathces

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Maschen" and "matches" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Maschen" is a noun and "matches" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Maschen" or "matches" show up more?
"matches" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,983 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.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Maschen" and "matches".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Maschen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "matches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,474,700 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Maschen" and "matches" 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 #1,474,700 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