verkehrenvsverkehrteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#16,863
“verkehren” frequency rank
#23,765
“verkehrte” frequency rank
40628
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verkehren verkehrte
Definition nur mit dem Hilfsverb haben: Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs verkehrt

Where the eye mixes verkehren and verkehrte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. verkehren (CVCCVCCVC) and verkehrte (CVCCVCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
verkehren
9 ch
verkehrte

Visual trap between verkehren and verkehrte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verkehren is [fɛɐ̯ˈkeːʁən] while verkehrte is [fɛɐ̯ˈkeːɐ̯tə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40628, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verkehren is recorded at frequency rank #16,863, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈkeːʁən]. verkehrte is at rank #23,765, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈkeːɐ̯tə].

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 40628, this pair ranks #1,502,978 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of verkehren vs verkehrte

Shared letters: ehkrv. Private to "verkehren": n. Private to "verkehrte": t.

"verkehren" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "verkehrte" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verkehrenevrkehren · vekrehren · verekhren · verkehern · verkehhren · verkehrenn · verkehrne · verkehrren
  • verkehrteevrkehrte · vekrehrte · verekhrte · verkehhrte · verkehret · verkehrrte · verkehrtte · verkehtre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "verkehren" for "verkehrte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verkehren" is a verb and "verkehrte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "verkehren" or "verkehrte"?
"verkehren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,863 in our German list, against #23,765 for "verkehrte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "verkehren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verkehrte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,502,978 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verkehren" and "verkehrte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verehrter vs verkehrte". 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 #1,502,978 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