erwartevserwartetWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#4,981
“erwarte” frequency rank
#967
“erwartet” frequency rank
5948
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature erwarte erwartet
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs erwarten das Erscheinen einer Person, das Eintreten eines Ereignisses gewünscht, ersehnt, gefordert oder vermutet

Where the eye mixes erwarte and erwartet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. erwarte runs 7 letters (VCCVCCV) against erwartet's 8 (VCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
erwarte
8 ch
erwartet

Look-alike desk: erwarte vs erwartet

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: erwarte is [ɛɐ̯ˈvaʁtə] while erwartet is [ɛɐ̯ˈvaʁtət]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “erwarte” sits inside “erwartet”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

erwarte is recorded at frequency rank #4,981, classified as averb, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈvaʁtə]. erwartet is at rank #967, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈvaʁtət].

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 5948, this pair ranks #1,993,197 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of erwarte vs erwartet

Shared letters: aertw. Private to "erwarte": -. Private to "erwartet": -.

"erwarte" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "erwartet" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • erwarte ← erawrte · errwarte · erwaret · erwarrte · erwatre · erwrate · erwwarte · ewrarte
  • erwartet ← erawrtet · errwartet · erwarett · erwarrtet · erwartett · erwartte · erwarttet · erwatret

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "erwarte" and "erwartet" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "erwarte" is a verb and "erwartet" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "erwarte" or "erwartet" show up more?
"erwartet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #967 in our German list, against #4,981 for "erwarte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "erwarte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "erwartet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,993,197 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "erwarte" and "erwartet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "erhärtet vs erwarte". 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 #1,993,197 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