verbiegenvsverlierenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“verbiegen” and “verlieren” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,430
“verbiegen” frequency rank
#1,375
“verlieren” frequency rank
35805
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verbiegen verlieren
Definition aus der (richtigen) Form bringen (so dass etwas nicht mehr so wie zuvor zu nutzen ist) etwas irgendwo hinlegen und es später nicht mehr wiederfinden

Where the eye mixes verbiegen and verlieren

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. verbiegen and verlieren follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
verbiegen
9 ch
verlieren

Why the eye confuses verbiegen with verlieren

A purely visual mix-up. verbiegen ([fɛɐ̯ˈbiːɡn̩]) and verlieren ([fɛɐ̯ˈliːʁən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35805, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verbiegen is recorded at frequency rank #34,430, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈbiːɡn̩]. verlieren is at rank #1,375, tagged as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈliːʁən].

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 35805, this pair ranks #1,631,095 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of verbiegen vs verlieren

Shared letters: einrv. Private to "verbiegen": bg. Private to "verlieren": l.

"verbiegen" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC  ·  "verlieren" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verbiegen ← evrbiegen · vebriegen · verbbiegen · verbeigen · verbieegn · verbiegenn · verbieggen · verbiegne
  • verlieren ← evrlieren · velrieren · verileren · verleiren · verlieern · verlierenn · verlierne · verlierren

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "verbiegen" for "verlieren" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([fɛɐ̯ˈbiːɡn̩] versus [fɛɐ̯ˈliːʁən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "verbiegen" or "verlieren" show up more?
"verlieren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,375 in our German list, against #34,430 for "verbiegen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "verbiegen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verlieren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,631,095 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verbiegen" and "verlieren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verbiegen vs vermiesen". 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 #1,631,095 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