# be vs by

> German confusable word pair

## The two words

### be
*verb · IPA [biː] · frequency rank #1,621*
sein, existieren

### by
*noun · IPA […] · frequency rank #1,627*
Stadt

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/de/vs/be-vs-by