aufgebautvsaufgebautenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#2,635
“aufgebaut” frequency rank
#29,476
“aufgebauten” frequency rank
32111
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aufgebaut aufgebauten
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs aufbauen Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs aufgebaut

Where the eye mixes aufgebaut and aufgebauten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. aufgebaut runs 9 letters (VVCCVCVVC) against aufgebauten's 11 (VVCCVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
aufgebaut
11 ch
aufgebauten

Visual trap between aufgebaut and aufgebauten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aufgebaut is [ˈaʊ̯fɡəˌbaʊ̯t] while aufgebauten is [ˈaʊ̯fɡəˌbaʊ̯tn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “aufgebaut” sits inside “aufgebauten”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32111, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aufgebaut is recorded at frequency rank #2,635, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯fɡəˌbaʊ̯t]. aufgebauten is at rank #29,476, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯fɡəˌbaʊ̯tn̩].

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 32111, this pair ranks #1,714,502 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aufgebaut vs aufgebauten

Shared letters: abefgtu. Private to "aufgebaut": -. Private to "aufgebauten": n.

"aufgebaut" · 9 letters · shape VVCCVCVVC  ·  "aufgebauten" · 11 letters · shape VVCCVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aufgebaut ← afugebaut · aufegbaut · auffgebaut · aufgbeaut · aufgeabut · aufgebatu · aufgebautt · aufgebbaut
  • aufgebauten ← afugebauten · aufegbauten · auffgebauten · aufgbeauten · aufgeabuten · aufgebatuen · aufgebauetn · aufgebautenn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "aufgebaut" and "aufgebauten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aufgebaut" is a verb and "aufgebauten" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "aufgebaut" or "aufgebauten" show up more?
"aufgebaut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,635 in our German list, against #29,476 for "aufgebauten". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aufgebaut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aufgebauten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,714,502 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aufgebaut" and "aufgebauten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Aufbauten vs aufgebauten". 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 #1,714,502 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