angehörenvsangehörtenConfusable pair

Quick tell: angehören is a verb, angehörten is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“angehören” is a verb and “angehörten” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,137
“angehören” frequency rank
#29,920
“angehörten” frequency rank
39057
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature angehören angehörten
Definition Teil einer Gruppe, eines Gremiums, einer Organisation, eines Gebiets oder Ähnlichem sein Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs angehört

Where the eye mixes angehören and angehörten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. angehören runs 9 letters (VCCVCVCVC) against angehörten's 10 (VCCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
angehören
10 ch
angehörten

Look-alike desk: angehören vs angehörten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: angehören is [ˈanɡəˌhøːʁən] while angehörten is [ˈanɡəˌhøːɐ̯tn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39057, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

angehören is recorded at frequency rank #9,137, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈanɡəˌhøːʁən]. angehörten is at rank #29,920, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈanɡəˌhøːɐ̯tn̩].

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 39057, this pair ranks #1,547,270 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of angehören vs angehörten

Shared letters: aeghnrö. Private to "angehören": -. Private to "angehörten": t.

"angehören" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVC  ·  "angehörten" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "angehören" for "angehörten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "angehören" is a verb and "angehörten" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "angehören" or "angehörten"?
"angehören" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,137 in our German list, against #29,920 for "angehörten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "angehören" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "angehörten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,547,270 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "angehören" and "angehörten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "angeboren vs angehörten". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,547,270 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