befragenvsbegrabenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,465
“befragen” frequency rank
#6,394
“begraben” frequency rank
18859
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature befragen begraben
Definition um mehrere Auskünfte bitten; Fragen an jemanden stellen einen Verstorbenen beisetzen, beerdigen

Where the eye mixes befragen and begraben

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. befragen and begraben follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
befragen
8 ch
begraben

Look-alike desk: befragen vs begraben

A purely visual mix-up. befragen ([bəˈfʁaːɡn̩]) and begraben ([bəˈɡʁaːbn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18859, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

befragen is recorded at frequency rank #12,465, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈfʁaːɡn̩]. begraben is at rank #6,394, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈɡʁaːbn̩].

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 18859, this pair ranks #1,914,189 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of befragen vs begraben

Shared letters: abegnr. Private to "befragen": f. Private to "begraben": -.

"befragen" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "begraben" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • befragen ← bbefragen · befargen · beffragen · befraegn · befragenn · befraggen · befragne · befrgaen
  • begraben ← bbegraben · begarben · beggraben · begrabben · begrabenn · begrabne · begraebn · begrbaen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "befragen" and "begraben" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈfʁaːɡn̩] versus [bəˈɡʁaːbn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "befragen" vs "begraben" - which ranks higher?
"begraben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,394 in our German list, against #12,465 for "befragen". 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 "befragen" and "begraben" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "befragen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "begraben" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,914,189 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "befragen" and "begraben" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "befragen vs Betrages". 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 #1,914,189 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