verbogenvsverboteneWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#40,920
“verbogen” frequency rank
#14,971
“verbotene” frequency rank
55891
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verbogen verbotene
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs verbiegen Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs verboten

Where the eye mixes verbogen and verbotene

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
verbogen
9 ch
verbotene

Visual trap between verbogen and verbotene

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verbogen is [fɛɐ̯ˈboːɡn̩] while verbotene is [fɛɐ̯ˈboːtənə]. 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 55891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verbogen is recorded at frequency rank #40,920, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈboːɡn̩]. verbotene is at rank #14,971, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈboːtənə].

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 55891, this pair ranks #961,682 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of verbogen vs verbotene

Shared letters: benorv. Private to "verbogen": g. Private to "verbotene": t.

"verbogen" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "verbotene" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verbogenevrbogen · vebrogen · verbbogen · verbgoen · verboegn · verbogenn · verboggen · verbogne
  • verboteneevrbotene · vebrotene · verbbotene · verboetne · verboteen · verbotenne · verbotnee · verbottene

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "verbogen" and "verbotene" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verbogen" is a verb and "verbotene" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "verbogen" or "verbotene" show up more?
"verbotene" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,971 in our German list, against #40,920 for "verbogen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "verbogen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verbotene" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #961,682 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verbogen" and "verbotene" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verbogen vs Vorboten". 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 #961,682 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