verkaufenvsVerkäufernWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: verkaufen is a verb, Verkäufern is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“verkaufen” is a verb and “Verkäufern” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,246
“verkaufen” frequency rank
#47,819
“Verkäufern” frequency rank
49065
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verkaufen Verkäufern
Definition einen Gegenstand, eine Ware gegen Geld abgeben Dativ Plural des Substantivs Verkäufer

Where the eye mixes verkaufen and Verkäufern

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

9 ch
verkaufen
10 ch
Verkäufern

Visual trap between verkaufen and Verkäufern

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verkaufen is [fɛɐ̯ˈkaʊ̯fn̩] while Verkäufern is [fɛɐ̯ˈkɔɪ̯fɐn]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49065, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verkaufen is recorded at frequency rank #1,246, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈkaʊ̯fn̩]. Verkäufern is at rank #47,819, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈkɔɪ̯fɐn].

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 49065, this pair ranks #1,225,347 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of verkaufen vs Verkäufern

Shared letters: efknruv. Private to "verkaufen": a. Private to "Verkäufern": ä.

"verkaufen" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC  ·  "Verkäufern" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verkaufen ← evrkaufen · vekraufen · verakufen · verkafuen · verkauefn · verkaufenn · verkauffen · verkaufne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "verkaufen" and "Verkäufern" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verkaufen" is a verb and "Verkäufern" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "verkaufen" or "Verkäufern" show up more?
"verkaufen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,246 in our German list, against #47,819 for "Verkäufern". 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 "verkaufen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Verkäufern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,225,347 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verkaufen" and "Verkäufern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Verkäufern vs Verkäufers". 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 #1,225,347 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