propagierenvspropagierteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#40,146
“propagieren” frequency rank
#44,861
“propagierte” frequency rank
85007
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature propagieren propagierte
Definition eine (oft politische oder philosophische) Idee, Meinung verbreiten beziehungsweise dafür werben Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs propagiert

Where the eye mixes propagieren and propagierte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. propagieren (CCVCVCVVCVC) and propagierte (CCVCVCVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

11 ch
propagieren
11 ch
propagierte

Why the eye confuses propagieren with propagierte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: propagieren is [pʁopaˈɡiːʁən] while propagierte is [pʁopaˈɡiːɐ̯tə]. 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 85007, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

propagieren is recorded at frequency rank #40,146, classified as averb, pronounced [pʁopaˈɡiːʁən]. propagierte is at rank #44,861, tagged as anadj, pronounced [pʁopaˈɡiːɐ̯tə].

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 85007, this pair ranks #114,891 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of propagieren vs propagierte

Shared letters: aegiopr. Private to "propagieren": n. Private to "propagierte": t.

"propagieren" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVCVVCVC  ·  "propagierte" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVCVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • propagieren ← porpagieren · ppropagieren · proapgieren · propageiren · propaggieren · propagieern · propagierenn · propagierne
  • propagierte ← porpagierte · ppropagierte · proapgierte · propageirte · propaggierte · propagieret · propagierrte · propagiertte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "propagieren" for "propagierte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "propagieren" is a verb and "propagierte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "propagieren" or "propagierte" show up more?
"propagieren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,146 in our German list, against #44,861 for "propagierte". 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 "propagieren" and "propagierte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "propagieren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "propagierte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #114,891 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "propagieren" and "propagierte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "propagiert vs propagierte". 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 #114,891 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