offenbarvsoffenbarteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,117
“offenbar” frequency rank
#28,787
“offenbarte” frequency rank
29904
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature offenbar offenbarte
Definition für jeden zu sehen, klar ersichtlich (kein Zweifel möglich) Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs offenbart

Where the eye mixes offenbar and offenbarte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

8 ch
offenbar
10 ch
offenbarte

Look-alike desk: offenbar vs offenbarte

A purely visual mix-up. offenbar ([ˈɔfn̩baːɐ̯]) and offenbarte ([ɔfn̩ˈbaːɐ̯tə]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “offenbar” sits inside “offenbarte”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29904, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

offenbar is recorded at frequency rank #1,117, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈɔfn̩baːɐ̯]. offenbarte is at rank #28,787, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɔfn̩ˈbaːɐ̯tə].

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 29904, this pair ranks #1,758,062 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of offenbar vs offenbarte

Shared letters: abefnor. Private to "offenbar": -. Private to "offenbarte": t.

"offenbar" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC  ·  "offenbarte" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • offenbarfofenbar · ofefnbar · ofenbar · offebnar · offenabr · offenbarr · offenbbar · offenbra
  • offenbartefofenbarte · ofefnbarte · ofenbarte · offebnarte · offenabrte · offenbaret · offenbarrte · offenbartte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "offenbar" and "offenbarte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈɔfn̩baːɐ̯] versus [ɔfn̩ˈbaːɐ̯tə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "offenbar" vs "offenbarte" - which ranks higher?
"offenbar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,117 in our German list, against #28,787 for "offenbarte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "offenbar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "offenbarte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,758,062 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "offenbar" and "offenbarte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "offenbaren vs offenbarte". 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 #1,758,062 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