verbietevsverzierteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#37,858
“verbiete” frequency rank
#42,921
“verzierte” frequency rank
80779
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verbiete verzierte
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs verbieten Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs verziert

Where the eye mixes verbiete and verzierte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. verbiete runs 8 letters (CVCCVVCV) against verzierte's 9 (CVCCVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
verbiete
9 ch
verzierte

Visual trap between verbiete and verzierte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verbiete is [fɛɐ̯ˈbiːtə] while verzierte is [fɛɐ̯ˈt͡siːɐ̯tə]. 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 80779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verbiete is recorded at frequency rank #37,858, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈbiːtə]. verzierte is at rank #42,921, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈt͡siːɐ̯tə].

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 80779, this pair ranks #188,650 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of verbiete vs verzierte

Shared letters: eirtv. Private to "verbiete": b. Private to "verzierte": z.

"verbiete" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "verzierte" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verbieteevrbiete · vebriete · verbbiete · verbeite · verbieet · verbitee · veribete · verrbiete
  • verzierteevrzierte · verizerte · verrzierte · verzeirte · verzieret · verzierrte · verziertte · verzietre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "verbiete" and "verzierte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verbiete" is a verb and "verzierte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "verbiete" or "verzierte" show up more?
"verbiete" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,858 in our German list, against #42,921 for "verzierte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "verbiete" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verzierte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #188,650 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verbiete" and "verzierte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verirrte vs verzierte". 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 #188,650 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