Which to use
“bebauten” is an adjective and “besaufen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,156
- “bebauten” frequency rank
- #45,169
- “besaufen” frequency rank
- 90325
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bebauten | besaufen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs bebaut | Alkohol zu sich nehmen |
Where the eye mixes bebauten and besaufen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. bebauten and besaufen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between bebauten and besaufen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bebauten is [bəˈbaʊ̯tn̩] while besaufen is [bəˈzaʊ̯fn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90325, 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]. besaufen is at rank #45,169, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈzaʊ̯fn̩].
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 90325, this pair ranks #48,101 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bebauten vs besaufen
Shared letters: abenu. Private to "bebauten": t. Private to "besaufen": fs.
"bebauten" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "besaufen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bebauten" for "besaufen" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "bebauten" or "besaufen" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "bebauten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "besaufen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #48,101 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bebauten" and "besaufen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "besaufen 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 #48,101 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.