komponierenvskomponierteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#31,647
“komponieren” frequency rank
#30,645
“komponierte” frequency rank
62292
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature komponieren komponierte
Definition (kunstvoll) aus Einzelteilen nach bestimmten Regeln zusammenstellen und anordnen Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs komponiert

Where the eye mixes komponieren and komponierte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence.

11 ch
komponieren
11 ch
komponierte

Visual trap between komponieren and komponierte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: komponieren is [kɔmpoˈniːʁən] while komponierte is [kɔmpoˈniːɐ̯tə]. 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 62292, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

komponieren is recorded at frequency rank #31,647, classified as averb, pronounced [kɔmpoˈniːʁən]. komponierte is at rank #30,645, tagged as anadj, pronounced [kɔmpoˈniːɐ̯tə].

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 62292, this pair ranks #718,272 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of komponieren vs komponierte

Shared letters: eikmnopr. Private to "komponieren": -. Private to "komponierte": t.

"komponieren" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCVC  ·  "komponierte" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • komponierenkkomponieren · kmoponieren · kommponieren · komopnieren · kompnoieren · kompoineren · komponeiren · komponieern
  • komponiertekkomponierte · kmoponierte · kommponierte · komopnierte · kompnoierte · kompoinerte · komponeirte · komponieret

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "komponieren" for "komponierte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "komponieren" is a verb and "komponierte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "komponieren" or "komponierte" show up more?
"komponierte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,645 in our German list, against #31,647 for "komponieren". 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 "komponieren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "komponierte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #718,272 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "komponieren" and "komponierte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kombinierte vs komponierte". 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 #718,272 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