Which to use
“referieren” is a verb and “referierte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,935
- “referieren” frequency rank
- #49,998
- “referierte” frequency rank
- 96933
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | referieren | referierte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ein Referat, einen Vortrag halten, etwas (knapp) wiedergeben | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs referiert |
Where the eye mixes referieren and referierte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. referieren (CVCVCVVCVC) and referierte (CVCVCVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: referieren vs referierte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: referieren is [ʁefəˈʁiːʁən] while referierte is [ʁefəˈʁiːɐ̯tə]. 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 96933, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
referieren is recorded at frequency rank #46,935, classified as averb, pronounced [ʁefəˈʁiːʁən]. referierte is at rank #49,998, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ʁefəˈʁiːɐ̯tə].
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 96933, this pair ranks #5,415 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of referieren vs referierte
Shared letters: efir. Private to "referieren": n. Private to "referierte": t.
"referieren" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVCVC · "referierte" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- referieren ← erferieren · reefrieren · refeireren · refereiren · referieern · referierenn · referierne · referierren
- referierte ← erferierte · reefrierte · refeirerte · refereirte · referieret · referierrte · referiertte · referietre
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "referieren" for "referierte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "referieren" or "referierte"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "referieren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "referierte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #5,415 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "referieren" and "referierte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "referierte vs reformierte". 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 #5,415 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.