Which to use
“verschlagen” is an adjective and “vorschlagen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,002
- “verschlagen” frequency rank
- #9,297
- “vorschlagen” frequency rank
- 37299
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | verschlagen | vorschlagen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | auf geschickte und verdeckte Art und Weise eigennützig | einen Vorschlag machen; eine Empfehlung machen, die abgelehnt werden kann |
Where the eye mixes verschlagen and vorschlagen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. verschlagen and vorschlagen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between verschlagen and vorschlagen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verschlagen is [fɛɐ̯ˈʃlaːɡn̩] while vorschlagen is [ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʃlaːɡn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “verschlagen” becomes o in “vorschlagen”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
verschlagen is recorded at frequency rank #28,002, classified as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈʃlaːɡn̩]. vorschlagen is at rank #9,297, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʃlaːɡn̩].
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 37299, this pair ranks #1,593,792 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of verschlagen vs vorschlagen
Shared letters: aceghlnrsv. Private to "verschlagen": -. Private to "vorschlagen": o.
"verschlagen" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCCCVCVC · "vorschlagen" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- verschlagen ← evrschlagen · vercshlagen · verrschlagen · verscchlagen · verschalgen · verschhlagen · verschlaegn · verschlagenn
- vorschlagen ← ovrschlagen · vorcshlagen · vorrschlagen · vorscchlagen · vorschalgen · vorschhlagen · vorschlaegn · vorschlagenn
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "verschlagen" and "vorschlagen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "verschlagen" or "vorschlagen" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "verschlagen" and "vorschlagen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "verschlagen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vorschlagen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,593,792 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "verschlagen" and "vorschlagen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verschlagen vs verschlingen". 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 #1,593,792 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.