verschafftevsverschärftWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#21,465
“verschaffte” frequency rank
#11,563
“verschärft” frequency rank
33028
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verschaffte verschärft
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs verschafft Partizip Perfekt des Verbs verschärfen

Where the eye mixes verschaffte and verschärft

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

11 ch
verschaffte
10 ch
verschärft

Look-alike desk: verschaffte vs verschärft

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verschaffte is [fɛɐ̯ˈʃaftə] while verschärft is [fɛɐ̯ˈʃɛʁft]. 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 33028, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verschaffte is recorded at frequency rank #21,465, classified as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈʃaftə]. verschärft is at rank #11,563, tagged as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈʃɛʁft].

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 33028, this pair ranks #1,694,852 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of verschaffte vs verschärft

Shared letters: cefhrstv. Private to "verschaffte": a. Private to "verschärft": ä.

"verschaffte" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCCVCCCV  ·  "verschärft" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verschaffteevrschaffte · vercshaffte · verrschaffte · verscahffte · verscchaffte · verschaffet · verschafftte · verschafte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "verschaffte" and "verschärft" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verschaffte" is an adjective and "verschärft" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "verschaffte" or "verschärft"?
"verschärft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,563 in our German list, against #21,465 for "verschaffte". 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 "verschaffte" and "verschärft" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "verschaffte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verschärft" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,694,852 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verschaffte" and "verschärft" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verschaffte vs verschafften". 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 #1,694,852 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