importierenvsimportierteTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#22,024
“importieren” frequency rank
#35,848
“importierte” frequency rank
57872
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature importieren importierte
Definition Waren aus dem Ausland in das eigene Land einführen Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs importiert

Where the eye mixes importieren and importierte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. importieren (VCCVCCVVCVC) and importierte (VCCVCCVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

11 ch
importieren
11 ch
importierte

Why the eye confuses importieren with importierte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: importieren is [ɪmpɔʁˈtiːʁən] while importierte is [ɪmpɔʁˈtiːɐ̯tə]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

importieren is recorded at frequency rank #22,024, classified as averb, pronounced [ɪmpɔʁˈtiːʁən]. importierte is at rank #35,848, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɪmpɔʁˈtiːɐ̯tə].

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 57872, this pair ranks #884,489 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of importieren vs importierte

Shared letters: eimoprt. Private to "importieren": n. Private to "importierte": -.

"importieren" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVVCVC  ·  "importierte" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • importieren ← immportieren · imoprtieren · imporiteren · imporrtieren · importeiren · importieern · importierenn · importierne
  • importierte ← immportierte · imoprtierte · imporiterte · imporrtierte · importeirte · importieret · importierrte · importiertte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "importieren" and "importierte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "importieren" is a verb and "importierte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "importieren" or "importierte" show up more?
"importieren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,024 in our German list, against #35,848 for "importierte". 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 "importieren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "importierte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #884,489 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "importieren" and "importierte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "importierte vs importierten". 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 #884,489 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