verbreitevsverbreitetWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#45,652
“verbreite” frequency rank
#2,367
“verbreitet” frequency rank
48019
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verbreite verbreitet
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs verbreiten bei sehr vielen Menschen oder in sehr vielen Fällen zu finden seiend

Where the eye mixes verbreite and verbreitet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. verbreite runs 9 letters (CVCCCVVCV) against verbreitet's 10 (CVCCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
verbreite
10 ch
verbreitet

Visual trap between verbreite and verbreitet

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verbreite is [fɛɐ̯ˈbʁaɪ̯tə] while verbreitet is [ˌfɛɐ̯ˈbʁaɪ̯tət]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “verbreite” sits inside “verbreitet”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48019, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verbreite is recorded at frequency rank #45,652, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈbʁaɪ̯tə]. verbreitet is at rank #2,367, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˌfɛɐ̯ˈbʁaɪ̯tət].

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 48019, this pair ranks #1,263,777 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of verbreite vs verbreitet

Shared letters: beirtv. Private to "verbreite": -. Private to "verbreitet": -.

"verbreite" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVVCV  ·  "verbreitet" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verbreite ← evrbreite · vebrreite · verbbreite · verberite · verbreiet · verbretie · verbriete · verbrreite
  • verbreitet ← evrbreitet · vebrreitet · verbbreitet · verberitet · verbreiett · verbreitett · verbreitte · verbreittet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "verbreite" and "verbreitet" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verbreite" is a verb and "verbreitet" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "verbreite" or "verbreitet" show up more?
"verbreitet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,367 in our German list, against #45,652 for "verbreite". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "verbreite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verbreitet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,263,777 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verbreite" and "verbreitet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verbreite vs verdrehte". 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 #1,263,777 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