verdienenvsverdienterTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#1,749
“verdienen” frequency rank
#23,760
“verdienter” frequency rank
25509
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verdienen verdienter
Definition Geld für eine Tätigkeit erhalten Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs verdient

Where the eye mixes verdienen and verdienter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. verdienen runs 9 letters (CVCCVVCVC) against verdienter's 10 (CVCCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
verdienen
10 ch
verdienter

Why the eye confuses verdienen with verdienter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verdienen is [fɛɐ̯ˈdiːnən] while verdienter is [fɛɐ̯ˈdiːntɐ]. 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 25509, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verdienen is recorded at frequency rank #1,749, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈdiːnən]. verdienter is at rank #23,760, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈdiːntɐ].

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 25509, this pair ranks #1,832,200 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of verdienen vs verdienter

Shared letters: deinrv. Private to "verdienen": -. Private to "verdienter": t.

"verdienen" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC  ·  "verdienter" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verdienenevrdienen · vedrienen · verddienen · verdeinen · verdieenn · verdienenn · verdienne · verdiennen
  • verdienterevrdienter · vedrienter · verddienter · verdeinter · verdienetr · verdiennter · verdienterr · verdientre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "verdienen" and "verdienter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verdienen" is a verb and "verdienter" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "verdienen" or "verdienter" show up more?
"verdienen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,749 in our German list, against #23,760 for "verdienter". 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 "verdienen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verdienter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,832,200 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verdienen" and "verdienter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verdienter vs verdientes". 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 #1,832,200 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