verbalevsVergabeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: verbale is a adjective, Vergabe is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“verbale” is an adjective and “Vergabe” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,190
“verbale” frequency rank
#10,765
“Vergabe” frequency rank
32955
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verbale Vergabe
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs verbal Übertragung von etwas an eine Person, Institution oder einen Betrieb (oder an mehrere)

Where the eye mixes verbale and Vergabe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. verbale and Vergabe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
verbale
7 ch
Vergabe

Why the eye confuses verbale with Vergabe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verbale is [vɛʁˈbaːlə] while Vergabe is [fɛɐ̯ˈɡaːbə]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32955, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verbale is recorded at frequency rank #22,190, classified as anadj, pronounced [vɛʁˈbaːlə]. Vergabe is at rank #10,765, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈɡaːbə].

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 32955, this pair ranks #1,696,482 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of verbale vs Vergabe

Shared letters: aberv. Private to "verbale": l. Private to "Vergabe": g.

"verbale" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "Vergabe" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verbale ← evrbale · vebrale · verable · verbael · verballe · verbbale · verblae · verrbale
  • Vergabe ← evrgabe · vegrabe · veragbe · vergabbe · vergaeb · vergbae · verggabe · verrgabe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "verbale" and "Vergabe" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verbale" is an adjective and "Vergabe" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "verbale" or "Vergabe"?
"Vergabe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,765 in our German list, against #22,190 for "verbale". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "verbale" and "Vergabe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "verbale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Vergabe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,696,482 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verbale" and "Vergabe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verbale vs virale". 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 #1,696,482 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