verkehrtenvsverzehrenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: verkehrten is a adjective, verzehren is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#35,520
“verkehrten” frequency rank
#28,919
“verzehren” frequency rank
64439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verkehrten verzehren
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs verkehrt als Nahrung zu sich nehmen

Where the eye mixes verkehrten and verzehren

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

10 ch
verkehrten
9 ch
verzehren

Visual trap between verkehrten and verzehren

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verkehrten is [fɛɐ̯ˈkeːɐ̯tn̩] while verzehren is [ˌfɛɐ̯ˈt͡seːʁən]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verkehrten is recorded at frequency rank #35,520, classified as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈkeːɐ̯tn̩]. verzehren is at rank #28,919, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˌfɛɐ̯ˈt͡seːʁən].

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 64439, this pair ranks #641,534 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of verkehrten vs verzehren

Shared letters: ehnrv. Private to "verkehrten": kt. Private to "verzehren": z.

"verkehrten" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCCVC  ·  "verzehren" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verkehrtenevrkehrten · vekrehrten · verekhrten · verkehhrten · verkehretn · verkehrrten · verkehrtenn · verkehrtne
  • verzehrenevrzehren · verezhren · verrzehren · verzehern · verzehhren · verzehrenn · verzehrne · verzehrren

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "verkehrten" and "verzehren" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verkehrten" is an adjective and "verzehren" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "verkehrten" vs "verzehren" - which ranks higher?
"verzehren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,919 in our German list, against #35,520 for "verkehrten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "verkehrten" and "verzehren" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "verkehrten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verzehren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #641,534 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verkehrten" and "verzehren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verehrter vs verkehrten". 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 #641,534 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