kritisierevskritisiertenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#38,864
“kritisiere” frequency rank
#23,598
“kritisierten” frequency rank
62462
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kritisiere kritisierten
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs kritisieren Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs kritisiert

Where the eye mixes kritisiere and kritisierten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. kritisiere runs 10 letters (CCVCVCVVCV) against kritisierten's 12 (CCVCVCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
kritisiere
12 ch
kritisierten

Look-alike desk: kritisiere vs kritisierten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: kritisiere is [kʁitiˈziːʁə] while kritisierten is [kʁitiˈziːɐ̯tn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62462, 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]. kritisierten is at rank #23,598, tagged as anadj, pronounced [kʁitiˈziːɐ̯tn̩].

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 62462, this pair ranks #712,042 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kritisiere vs kritisierten

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

"kritisiere" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVVCV  ·  "kritisierten" · 12 letters · shape CCVCVCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kritisierekirtisiere · kkritisiere · kriitsiere · kritiisere · kritiseire · kritisieer · kritisierre · kritisiree
  • kritisiertenkirtisierten · kkritisierten · kriitsierten · kritiiserten · kritiseirten · kritisieretn · kritisierrten · kritisiertenn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kritisiere" for "kritisierten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kritisiere" is a verb and "kritisierten" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "kritisiere" or "kritisierten"?
"kritisierten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,598 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "kritisiere" and "kritisierten" 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 "kritisierten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #712,042 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kritisiere" and "kritisierten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kritisiere vs kritisierte". 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 #712,042 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