bedürftigevsbedürftigenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“bedürftige” and “bedürftigen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#25,911
“bedürftige” frequency rank
#25,459
“bedürftigen” frequency rank
51370
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bedürftige bedürftigen
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs bedürftig Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs bedürftig

Where the eye mixes bedürftige and bedürftigen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. bedürftige runs 10 letters (CVCVCCCVCV) against bedürftigen's 11 (CVCVCCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
bedürftige
11 ch
bedürftigen

Look-alike desk: bedürftige vs bedürftigen

A purely visual mix-up. bedürftige ([bəˈdʏʁftɪɡə]) and bedürftigen ([bəˈdʏʁftɪɡn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “bedürftige” sits inside “bedürftigen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51370, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bedürftige is recorded at frequency rank #25,911, classified as anadj, pronounced [bəˈdʏʁftɪɡə]. bedürftigen is at rank #25,459, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈdʏʁftɪɡn̩].

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 51370, this pair ranks #1,138,146 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bedürftige vs bedürftigen

Shared letters: bdefgirtü. Private to "bedürftige": -. Private to "bedürftigen": n.

"bedürftige" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCCVCV  ·  "bedürftigen" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bedürftige" and "bedürftigen" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈdʏʁftɪɡə] versus [bəˈdʏʁftɪɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "bedürftige" or "bedürftigen" show up more?
"bedürftigen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,459 in our German list, against #25,911 for "bedürftige". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bedürftige" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bedürftigen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,138,146 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bedürftige" and "bedürftigen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bedurfte vs bedürftige". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,138,146 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