Which to use
“passiert” and “passierte” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #550
- “passiert” frequency rank
- #8,437
- “passierte” frequency rank
- 8987
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passiert | passierte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | durch ein feinmaschiges Sieb oder ein Tuch gestrichen | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs passiert |
Where the eye mixes passiert and passierte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. passiert runs 8 letters (CVCCVVCC) against passierte's 9 (CVCCVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: passiert vs passierte
A purely visual mix-up. passiert ([paˈsiːɐ̯t]) and passierte ([paˈsiːɐ̯tə]) 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) - “passiert” sits inside “passierte”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8987, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passiert is recorded at frequency rank #550, classified as anadj, pronounced [paˈsiːɐ̯t]. 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 8987, this pair ranks #1,981,930 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passiert vs passierte
Shared letters: aeiprst. Private to "passiert": -. Private to "passierte": -.
"passiert" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC · "passierte" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "passiert" and "passierte" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "passiert" vs "passierte" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "passiert" 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 #1,981,930 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passiert" and "passierte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "passiert vs postiert". 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 #1,981,930 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.