erhofftvserhofftenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#12,901
“erhofft” frequency rank
#28,636
“erhofften” frequency rank
41537
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature erhofft erhofften
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs erhoffen Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs erhofft

Where the eye mixes erhofft and erhofften

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
erhofft
9 ch
erhofften

Look-alike desk: erhofft vs erhofften

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: erhofft is [ɛɐ̯ˈhɔft] while erhofften is [ɛɐ̯ˈhɔftn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “erhofft” sits inside “erhofften”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41537, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

erhofft is recorded at frequency rank #12,901, classified as averb, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈhɔft]. erhofften is at rank #28,636, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈhɔftn̩].

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 41537, this pair ranks #1,476,454 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of erhofft vs erhofften

Shared letters: efhort. Private to "erhofft": -. Private to "erhofften": n.

"erhofft" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCC  ·  "erhofften" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • erhofftehrofft · erhfoft · erhhofft · erhofftt · erhoft · erhoftf · erohfft · errhofft
  • erhofftenehrofften · erhfoften · erhhofften · erhoffetn · erhofftenn · erhofftne · erhofftten · erhoften

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "erhofft" and "erhofften" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "erhofft" is a verb and "erhofften" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "erhofft" or "erhofften" show up more?
"erhofft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,901 in our German list, against #28,636 for "erhofften". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "erhofft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "erhofften" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,476,454 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "erhofft" and "erhofften" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "erhoffen vs erhofften". 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 #1,476,454 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