Which to use
“verbleiben” is a verb and “verblieben” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,259
- “verbleiben” frequency rank
- #27,994
- “verblieben” frequency rank
- 41253
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | verbleiben | verblieben |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | sich auf etwas verständigen | übrig seiend, noch vorhanden |
Where the eye mixes verbleiben and verblieben
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. verbleiben and verblieben follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between verbleiben and verblieben
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verbleiben is [fɛɐ̯ˈblaɪ̯bn̩] while verblieben is [fɛɐ̯ˈbliːbn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (ei ↔ ie) - a transposition the eye reads straight past, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41253, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
verbleiben is recorded at frequency rank #13,259, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈblaɪ̯bn̩]. verblieben is at rank #27,994, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈbliːbn̩].
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 41253, this pair ranks #1,484,906 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of verbleiben vs verblieben
Shared letters: beilnrv. Private to "verbleiben": -. Private to "verblieben": -.
"verbleiben" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVVCVC · "verblieben" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- verbleiben ← evrbleiben · vebrleiben · verbbleiben · verbeliben · verblebien · verbleibben · verbleibenn · verbleibne
- verblieben ← evrblieben · vebrlieben · verbblieben · verbileben · verblibeen · verbliebben · verbliebenn · verbliebne
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "verbleiben" and "verblieben" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "verbleiben" or "verblieben" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "verbleiben" and "verblieben" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "verbleiben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "verblieben" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,484,906 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "verbleiben" and "verblieben" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verblieb vs verblieben". 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 #1,484,906 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.