bebautenvsbehauptenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: bebauten is a adjective, behaupten is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#45,156
“bebauten” frequency rank
#2,805
“behaupten” frequency rank
47961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bebauten behaupten
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs bebaut etwas sagen, was nicht stimmen muss oder gar unglaubwürdig ist

Where the eye mixes bebauten and behaupten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. bebauten runs 8 letters (CVCVVCVC) against behaupten's 9 (CVCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
bebauten
9 ch
behaupten

Look-alike desk: bebauten vs behaupten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bebauten is [bəˈbaʊ̯tn̩] while behaupten is [bəˈhaʊ̯ptn̩]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bebauten is recorded at frequency rank #45,156, classified as anadj, pronounced [bəˈbaʊ̯tn̩]. behaupten is at rank #2,805, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈhaʊ̯ptn̩].

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 47961, this pair ranks #1,265,788 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bebauten vs behaupten

Shared letters: abentu. Private to "bebauten": -. Private to "behaupten": hp.

"bebauten" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC  ·  "behaupten" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bebautenbbeauten · bbebauten · beabuten · bebatuen · bebauetn · bebautenn · bebautne · bebautten
  • behauptenbbehaupten · beahupten · behaputen · behaupetn · behauppten · behauptenn · behauptne · behauptten

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bebauten" and "behaupten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bebauten" is an adjective and "behaupten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "bebauten" or "behaupten" show up more?
"behaupten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,805 in our German list, against #45,156 for "bebauten". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bebauten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "behaupten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,265,788 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bebauten" and "behaupten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bebauten vs betäuben". 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 #1,265,788 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