verbogenvsverhörenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,920
“verbogen” frequency rank
#42,913
“verhören” frequency rank
83833
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verbogen verhören
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs verbiegen jemanden einem Verhör unterziehen

Where the eye mixes verbogen and verhören

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. verbogen and verhören follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
verbogen
8 ch
verhören

Why the eye confuses verbogen with verhören

A purely visual mix-up. verbogen ([fɛɐ̯ˈboːɡn̩]) and verhören ([fɛɐ̯ˈhøːʁən]) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83833, 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]. verhören is at rank #42,913, tagged as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈhøːʁən].

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 83833, this pair ranks #133,405 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of verbogen vs verhören

Shared letters: enrv. Private to "verbogen": bgo. Private to "verhören": hö.

"verbogen" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "verhören" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verbogen ← evrbogen · vebrogen · verbbogen · verbgoen · verboegn · verbogenn · verboggen · verbogne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "verbogen" and "verhören" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([fɛɐ̯ˈboːɡn̩] versus [fɛɐ̯ˈhøːʁən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "verbogen" or "verhören"?
"verbogen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,920 in our German list, against #42,913 for "verhören". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "verbogen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verhören" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #133,405 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verbogen" and "verhören" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verhören vs verworren". 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 #133,405 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