verteidigevsverteidigtenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#34,973
“verteidige” frequency rank
#39,111
“verteidigten” frequency rank
74084
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verteidige verteidigten
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs verteidigen Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs verteidigt

Where the eye mixes verteidige and verteidigten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence.

10 ch
verteidige
12 ch
verteidigten

Visual trap between verteidige and verteidigten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verteidige is [fɛɐ̯ˈtaɪ̯dɪɡə] while verteidigten is [fɛɐ̯ˈtaɪ̯dɪçtn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 74084, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verteidige is recorded at frequency rank #34,973, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈtaɪ̯dɪɡə]. verteidigten is at rank #39,111, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈtaɪ̯dɪçtn̩].

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 74084, this pair ranks #342,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of verteidige vs verteidigten

Shared letters: degirtv. Private to "verteidige": -. Private to "verteidigten": n.

"verteidige" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCVCV  ·  "verteidigten" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verteidigeevrteidige · veretidige · verrteidige · vertediige · verteiddige · verteidgie · verteidieg · verteidigge
  • verteidigtenevrteidigten · veretidigten · verrteidigten · vertediigten · verteiddigten · verteidgiten · verteidigetn · verteidiggten

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "verteidige" and "verteidigten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verteidige" is a verb and "verteidigten" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "verteidige" vs "verteidigten" - which ranks higher?
"verteidige" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,973 in our German list, against #39,111 for "verteidigten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "verteidige" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verteidigten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #342,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verteidige" and "verteidigten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verteidige vs Verteidigers". 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 #342,851 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