beachtenvsbedachteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#4,099
“beachten” frequency rank
#45,790
“bedachte” frequency rank
49889
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature beachten bedachte
Definition jemandem oder etwas Aufmerksamkeit schenken, jemanden oder etwas zur Kenntnis nehmen Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs bedacht

Where the eye mixes beachten and bedachte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. beachten (CVVCCCVC) and bedachte (CVCVCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
beachten
8 ch
bedachte

Look-alike desk: beachten vs bedachte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: beachten is [bəˈʔaxtn̩] while bedachte is [bəˈdaxtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 6 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49889, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

beachten is recorded at frequency rank #4,099, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈʔaxtn̩]. bedachte is at rank #45,790, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈdaxtə].

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 49889, this pair ranks #1,194,543 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of beachten vs bedachte

Shared letters: abceht. Private to "beachten": n. Private to "bedachte": d.

"beachten" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCCVC  ·  "bedachte" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • beachtenbaechten · bbeachten · beacchten · beachetn · beachhten · beachtenn · beachtne · beachtten
  • bedachtebbedachte · bdeachte · beadchte · bedacchte · bedachet · bedachhte · bedachtte · bedacthe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "beachten" for "bedachte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "beachten" is a verb and "bedachte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "beachten" or "bedachte" show up more?
"beachten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,099 in our German list, against #45,790 for "bedachte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "beachten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bedachte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,194,543 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "beachten" and "bedachte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bedachte vs bedeckte". 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 #1,194,543 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