verbautvsverkauftTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#11,989
“verbaut” frequency rank
#1,143
“verkauft” frequency rank
13132
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verbaut verkauft
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs verbauen durch Verkauf den Besitzer gewechselt oder an den Kunden beziehungsweise Käufer vergeben

Where the eye mixes verbaut and verkauft

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. verbaut runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against verkauft's 8 (CVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
verbaut
8 ch
verkauft

Why the eye confuses verbaut with verkauft

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verbaut is [fɛɐ̯ˈbaʊ̯t] while verkauft is [fɛɐ̯ˈkaʊ̯ft]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13132, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verbaut is recorded at frequency rank #11,989, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈbaʊ̯t]. verkauft is at rank #1,143, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈkaʊ̯ft].

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 13132, this pair ranks #1,959,908 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of verbaut vs verkauft

Shared letters: aertuv. Private to "verbaut": b. Private to "verkauft": fk.

"verbaut" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "verkauft" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verbaut ← evrbaut · vebraut · verabut · verbatu · verbautt · verbbaut · verbuat · verrbaut
  • verkauft ← evrkauft · vekrauft · verakuft · verkafut · verkaufft · verkauftt · verkautf · verkkauft

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "verbaut" and "verkauft" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verbaut" is a verb and "verkauft" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "verbaut" or "verkauft"?
"verkauft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,143 in our German list, against #11,989 for "verbaut". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "verbaut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verkauft" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,959,908 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verbaut" and "verkauft" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verbaut vs Vorbau". 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 #1,959,908 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