verliebtenvsverlierenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#32,343
“verliebten” frequency rank
#1,375
“verlieren” frequency rank
33718
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verliebten verlieren
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs verliebt etwas irgendwo hinlegen und es später nicht mehr wiederfinden

Where the eye mixes verliebten and verlieren

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

10 ch
verliebten
9 ch
verlieren

Look-alike desk: verliebten vs verlieren

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verliebten is [fɛɐ̯ˈliːptn̩] while verlieren is [fɛɐ̯ˈliːʁən]. 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 33718, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verliebten is recorded at frequency rank #32,343, classified as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈliːptn̩]. verlieren is at rank #1,375, tagged as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈliːʁən].

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 33718, this pair ranks #1,679,610 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of verliebten vs verlieren

Shared letters: eilnrv. Private to "verliebten": bt. Private to "verlieren": -.

"verliebten" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVC  ·  "verlieren" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verliebten ← evrliebten · velriebten · verilebten · verleibten · verlibeten · verliebbten · verliebetn · verliebtenn
  • verlieren ← evrlieren · velrieren · verileren · verleiren · verlieern · verlierenn · verlierne · verlierren

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "verliebten" for "verlieren" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verliebten" is an adjective and "verlieren" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "verliebten" or "verlieren" show up more?
"verlieren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,375 in our German list, against #32,343 for "verliebten". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "verliebten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verlieren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,679,610 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verliebten" and "verlieren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verhielten vs verliebten". 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 #1,679,610 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