verhörenvsverlosenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#42,913
“verhören” frequency rank
#30,842
“verlosen” frequency rank
73755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verhören verlosen
Definition jemanden einem Verhör unterziehen einen Preis austeilen, den diejenige Person gewinnt, die das richtige/gewinnende Los gezogen/erworben hat

Where the eye mixes verhören and verlosen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

8 ch
verhören
8 ch
verlosen

Why the eye confuses verhören with verlosen

A purely visual mix-up. verhören ([fɛɐ̯ˈhøːʁən]) and verlosen ([fɛɐ̯ˈloːzn̩]) 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 73755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verhören is recorded at frequency rank #42,913, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈhøːʁən]. verlosen is at rank #30,842, tagged as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈloːzn̩].

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 73755, this pair ranks #351,771 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of verhören vs verlosen

Shared letters: enrv. Private to "verhören": . Private to "verlosen": los.

"verhören" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "verlosen" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verlosenevrlosen · velrosen · verllosen · verloesn · verlosenn · verlosne · verlossen · verlsoen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "verhören" and "verlosen" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([fɛɐ̯ˈhøːʁən] versus [fɛɐ̯ˈloːzn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "verhören" vs "verlosen" - which ranks higher?
"verlosen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,842 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "verhören" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verlosen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #351,771 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verhören" and "verlosen" 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 #351,771 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