verratevsversagteTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#23,768
“verrate” frequency rank
#34,442
“versagte” frequency rank
58210
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verrate versagte
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs verraten Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs versagt

Where the eye mixes verrate and versagte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
verrate
8 ch
versagte

Visual trap between verrate and versagte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verrate is [fɛɐ̯ˈʁaːtə] while versagte is [fɛɐ̯ˈzaːktə]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58210, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verrate is recorded at frequency rank #23,768, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈʁaːtə]. versagte is at rank #34,442, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈzaːktə].

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 58210, this pair ranks #871,525 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of verrate vs versagte

Shared letters: aertv. Private to "verrate": -. Private to "versagte": gs.

"verrate" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "versagte" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verrateevrrate · verarte · verate · verraet · verratte · verrtae · vrerate · vverrate
  • versagteevrsagte · verasgte · verrsagte · versaget · versaggte · versagtte · versatge · versgate

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "verrate" for "versagte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verrate" is a verb and "versagte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "verrate" or "versagte" show up more?
"verrate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,768 in our German list, against #34,442 for "versagte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "verrate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "versagte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #871,525 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verrate" and "versagte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "versagte vs versäumte". 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 #871,525 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