ÜbernahmenvsübernehmenTell them apart

Quick tell: Übernahmen is a noun, übernehmen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Übernahmen” is a noun and “übernehmen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,160
“Übernahmen” frequency rank
#1,688
“übernehmen” frequency rank
12848
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Übernahmen übernehmen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Übernahme sich etwas von jemandem nehmen, zu eigen machen; jemandem etwas wegnehmen

Where the eye mixes Übernahmen and übernehmen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. Übernahmen and übernehmen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
Übernahmen
10 ch
übernehmen

Visual trap between Übernahmen and übernehmen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Übernahmen is [ˈyːbɐˌnaːmən] while übernehmen is [yːbɐˈneːmən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “Übernahmen” becomes e in “übernehmen”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12848, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Übernahmen is recorded at frequency rank #11,160, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈyːbɐˌnaːmən]. übernehmen is at rank #1,688, tagged as averb, pronounced [yːbɐˈneːmən].

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 12848, this pair ranks #1,961,669 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Übernahmen vs übernehmen

Shared letters: behmnrü. Private to "Übernahmen": a. Private to "übernehmen": -.

"Übernahmen" · 10 letters · shape VCVCCVCCVC  ·  "übernehmen" · 10 letters · shape VCVCCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Übernahmen" for "übernehmen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Übernahmen" is a noun and "übernehmen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Übernahmen" or "übernehmen"?
"übernehmen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,688 in our German list, against #11,160 for "Übernahmen". 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 "Übernahmen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "übernehmen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,961,669 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Übernahmen" and "übernehmen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Übernahmen vs übernehme". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,961,669 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