BeamtevsbehalteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Beamte is a noun, behalte is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Beamte” is a noun and “behalte” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,684
“Beamte” frequency rank
#15,834
“behalte” frequency rank
20518
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Beamte behalte
Definition weibliche Person, die verbeamtet (in Österreich: pragmatisiert) (oder in einer ähnlichen Position tätig) ist 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs behalten

Where the eye mixes Beamte and behalte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Beamte
7 ch
behalte

Visual trap between Beamte and behalte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Beamte is [bəˈʔamtə] while behalte is [bəˈhaltə]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20518, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Beamte is recorded at frequency rank #4,684, classified as anoun, pronounced [bəˈʔamtə]. behalte is at rank #15,834, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈhaltə].

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 20518, this pair ranks #1,896,764 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Beamte vs behalte

Shared letters: abet. Private to "Beamte": m. Private to "behalte": hl.

"Beamte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "behalte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Beamtebaemte · bbeamte · beamet · beammte · beamtte · beatme · bemate · ebamte
  • behaltebbehalte · beahlte · behalet · behallte · behaltte · behatle · behhalte · behlate

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Beamte" and "behalte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Beamte" is a noun and "behalte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Beamte" vs "behalte" - which ranks higher?
"Beamte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,684 in our German list, against #15,834 for "behalte". 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 "Beamte" and "behalte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Beamte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "behalte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,896,764 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Beamte" and "behalte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "behalte vs behaltet". 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 #1,896,764 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