kritisierevskritisierenConfusable pair

Which to use

“kritisiere” and “kritisieren” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#38,864
“kritisiere” frequency rank
#6,687
“kritisieren” frequency rank
45551
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kritisiere kritisieren
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs kritisieren fachlich beurteilen, besprechen, beschreiben

Where the eye mixes kritisiere and kritisieren

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. kritisiere runs 10 letters (CCVCVCVVCV) against kritisieren's 11 (CCVCVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
kritisiere
11 ch
kritisieren

Why the eye confuses kritisiere with kritisieren

A purely visual mix-up. kritisiere ([kʁitiˈziːʁə]) and kritisieren ([kʁitiˈziːʁən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “kritisiere” sits inside “kritisieren”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kritisiere is recorded at frequency rank #38,864, classified as averb, pronounced [kʁitiˈziːʁə]. kritisieren is at rank #6,687, tagged as averb, pronounced [kʁitiˈziːʁən].

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 45551, this pair ranks #1,349,209 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kritisiere vs kritisieren

Shared letters: eikrst. Private to "kritisiere": -. Private to "kritisieren": n.

"kritisiere" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVVCV  ·  "kritisieren" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kritisierekirtisiere · kkritisiere · kriitsiere · kritiisere · kritiseire · kritisieer · kritisierre · kritisiree
  • kritisierenkirtisieren · kkritisieren · kriitsieren · kritiiseren · kritiseiren · kritisieern · kritisierenn · kritisierne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "kritisiere" and "kritisieren" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([kʁitiˈziːʁə] versus [kʁitiˈziːʁən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "kritisiere" or "kritisieren" show up more?
"kritisieren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,687 in our German list, against #38,864 for "kritisiere". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "kritisiere" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kritisieren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,349,209 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kritisiere" and "kritisieren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kritisiere vs kritisierten". 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 #1,349,209 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