openvsopfernTell them apart

Quick tell: open is a adjective, opfern is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#2,607
“open” frequency rank
#4,729
“opfern” frequency rank
7336
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature open opfern
Definition etwas ist nicht geschlossen etwas als Opfer darbringen; etwas einem Gott während einer Zeremonie geben

Letter map: open vs opfern

Shared letters muted; letters that set open and opfern apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

4 ch
open
6 ch
opfern

Grammar separator: open vs opfern

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: open is anadjective and opfernaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7336, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

open is recorded at frequency rank #2,607, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. opfern is at rank #4,729, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈɔp͡fɐn].

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 7336, this pair ranks #1,988,529 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of open vs opfern

Shared letters: enop. Private to "open": -. Private to "opfern": fr.

"open" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "opfern" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • openoepn · openn · opne · oppen · poen
  • opfernofpern · opefrn · opfenr · opfernn · opferrn · opffern · opfren · oppfern

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "open" and "opfern" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "open" is an adjective and "opfern" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "open" or "opfern"?
"open" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,607 in our German list, against #4,729 for "opfern". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "open" and "opfern". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "open" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "opfern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,988,529 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "open" and "opfern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "opfern vs opferte". 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 #1,988,529 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