verhörenvsverzogenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,913
“verhören” frequency rank
#27,555
“verzogen” frequency rank
70468
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verhören verzogen
Definition jemanden einem Verhör unterziehen 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs verziehen

Where the eye mixes verhören and verzogen

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

8 ch
verhören
8 ch
verzogen

Visual trap between verhören and verzogen

A purely visual mix-up. verhören ([fɛɐ̯ˈhøːʁən]) and verzogen ([fɛɐ̯ˈt͡soːɡn̩]) 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 70468, 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]. verzogen is at rank #27,555, tagged as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈt͡soːɡn̩].

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 70468, this pair ranks #445,434 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of verhören vs verzogen

Shared letters: enrv. Private to "verhören": hö. Private to "verzogen": goz.

"verhören" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "verzogen" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verzogen ← evrzogen · verozgen · verrzogen · verzgoen · verzoegn · verzogenn · verzoggen · verzogne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "verhören" and "verzogen" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([fɛɐ̯ˈhøːʁən] versus [fɛɐ̯ˈt͡soːɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "verhören" or "verzogen" show up more?
"verzogen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,555 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.

After this comparison

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 "verzogen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #445,434 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verhören" and "verzogen" 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 #445,434 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