MattenvsmietenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#24,829
“Matten” frequency rank
#4,374
“mieten” frequency rank
29203
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Matten mieten
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Matta gegen Bezahlung für eine bestimmte Zeit zur Benutzung überlassen bekommen

Where the eye mixes Matten and mieten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Matten (CVCCVC) and mieten (CVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
Matten
6 ch
mieten

Look-alike desk: Matten vs mieten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Matten is [ˈmatn̩] while mieten is [ˈmiːtn̩]. 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 29203, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Matten is recorded at frequency rank #24,829, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmatn̩]. mieten is at rank #4,374, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmiːtn̩].

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 29203, this pair ranks #1,771,172 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Matten vs mieten

Shared letters: emnt. Private to "Matten": a. Private to "mieten": i.

"Matten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mieten" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Matten ← amtten · maten · matetn · mattenn · mattne · mmatten · mtaten
  • mieten ← imeten · meiten · mieetn · mietenn · mietne · mietten · miteen · mmieten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Matten" for "mieten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Matten" is a noun and "mieten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Matten" or "mieten" show up more?
"mieten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,374 in our German list, against #24,829 for "Matten". 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 "Matten" and "mieten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Matten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mieten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,771,172 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Matten" and "mieten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mailen vs Matten". 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 #1,771,172 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