verirrtvsverirrteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#24,175
“verirrt” frequency rank
#47,815
“verirrte” frequency rank
71990
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verirrt verirrte
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs verirren Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs verirrt

Where the eye mixes verirrt and verirrte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. verirrt runs 7 letters (CVCVCCC) against verirrte's 8 (CVCVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
verirrt
8 ch
verirrte

Look-alike desk: verirrt vs verirrte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verirrt is [fɛɐ̯ˈʔɪʁt] while verirrte is [fɛɐ̯ˈʔɪʁtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “verirrt” sits inside “verirrte”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verirrt is recorded at frequency rank #24,175, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈʔɪʁt]. verirrte is at rank #47,815, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈʔɪʁtə].

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 71990, this pair ranks #401,021 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of verirrt vs verirrte

Shared letters: eirtv. Private to "verirrt": -. Private to "verirrte": -.

"verirrt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "verirrte" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verirrt ← evrirrt · veirrrt · verirrtt · verirt · verirtr · verrirrt · verrirt · vreirrt
  • verirrte ← evrirrte · veirrrte · verirret · verirrtte · verirte · verirtre · verrirrte · verrirte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "verirrt" for "verirrte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verirrt" is a verb and "verirrte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "verirrt" or "verirrte" show up more?
"verirrt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,175 in our German list, against #47,815 for "verirrte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "verirrt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verirrte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,021 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verirrt" and "verirrte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verirrte vs verwirrter". 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 #401,021 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