Which to use
“passieren” is a verb and “passierte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,428
- “passieren” frequency rank
- #8,437
- “passierte” frequency rank
- 9865
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passieren | passierte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | etwas durchqueren, an etwas vorbeigehen oder -fahren, einen Ort überschreiten | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs passiert |
Where the eye mixes passieren and passierte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. passieren (CVCCVVCVC) and passierte (CVCCVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between passieren and passierte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: passieren is [paˈsiːʁən] while passierte is [paˈsiːɐ̯tə]. 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 9865, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passieren is recorded at frequency rank #1,428, classified as averb, pronounced [paˈsiːʁən]. passierte is at rank #8,437, tagged as anadj, pronounced [paˈsiːɐ̯tə].
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 9865, this pair ranks #1,977,933 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passieren vs passierte
Shared letters: aeiprs. Private to "passieren": n. Private to "passierte": t.
"passieren" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC · "passierte" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "passieren" for "passierte" ever safe?
Frequency check: "passieren" vs "passierte" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "passieren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "passierte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,977,933 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passieren" and "passierte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "passierte vs passierten". 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 #1,977,933 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.