referiertvsreferierteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#32,230
“referiert” frequency rank
#49,998
“referierte” frequency rank
82228
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature referiert referierte
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs referieren Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs referiert

Where the eye mixes referiert and referierte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. referiert runs 9 letters (CVCVCVVCC) against referierte's 10 (CVCVCVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
referiert
10 ch
referierte

Look-alike desk: referiert vs referierte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: referiert is [ʁefəˈʁiːɐ̯t] while referierte is [ʁefəˈʁiːɐ̯tə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “referiert” sits inside “referierte”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82228, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

referiert is recorded at frequency rank #32,230, classified as averb, pronounced [ʁefəˈʁiːɐ̯t]. 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 82228, this pair ranks #161,023 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of referiert vs referierte

Shared letters: efirt. Private to "referiert": -. Private to "referierte": -.

"referiert" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCC  ·  "referierte" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • referiert ← erferiert · reefriert · refeirert · refereirt · referierrt · referiertt · referietr · referiret
  • referierte ← erferierte · reefrierte · refeirerte · refereirte · referieret · referierrte · referiertte · referietre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "referiert" for "referierte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "referiert" is a verb and "referierte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "referiert" or "referierte"?
"referiert" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,230 in our German list, against #49,998 for "referierte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "referiert" 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 #161,023 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "referiert" and "referierte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "referieren vs referierte". 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 #161,023 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