bedauerevsbedauerteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#32,436
“bedauere” frequency rank
#36,820
“bedauerte” frequency rank
69256
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bedauere bedauerte
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs bedauern Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs bedauert

Where the eye mixes bedauere and bedauerte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

8 ch
bedauere
9 ch
bedauerte

Why the eye confuses bedauere with bedauerte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bedauere is [bəˈdaʊ̯əʁə] while bedauerte is [bəˈdaʊ̯ɐtə]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69256, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bedauere is recorded at frequency rank #32,436, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈdaʊ̯əʁə]. bedauerte is at rank #36,820, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈdaʊ̯ɐtə].

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 69256, this pair ranks #482,143 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bedauere vs bedauerte

Shared letters: abderu. Private to "bedauere": -. Private to "bedauerte": t.

"bedauere" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVVCV  ·  "bedauerte" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bedauerebbedauere · bdeauere · beaduere · bedaeure · bedaueer · bedauerre · bedauree · beddauere
  • bedauertebbedauerte · bdeauerte · beaduerte · bedaeurte · bedaueret · bedauerrte · bedauertte · bedauetre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bedauere" and "bedauerte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bedauere" is a verb and "bedauerte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "bedauere" or "bedauerte" show up more?
"bedauere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,436 in our German list, against #36,820 for "bedauerte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "bedauere" and "bedauerte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bedauere" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bedauerte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #482,143 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bedauere" and "bedauerte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bedauerte vs bedaure". 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 #482,143 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