begabtvsbegabteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#23,436
“begabt” frequency rank
#28,551
“begabte” frequency rank
51987
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature begabt begabte
Definition Talent besitzend Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs begabt

Where the eye mixes begabt and begabte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. begabt runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against begabte's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
begabt
7 ch
begabte

Why the eye confuses begabt with begabte

A purely visual mix-up. begabt ([bəˈɡaːpt]) and begabte ([bəˈɡaːptə]) 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) - “begabt” sits inside “begabte”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51987, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

begabt is recorded at frequency rank #23,436, classified as anadj, pronounced [bəˈɡaːpt]. begabte is at rank #28,551, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈɡaːptə].

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 51987, this pair ranks #1,114,264 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of begabt vs begabte

Shared letters: abegt. Private to "begabt": -. Private to "begabte": -.

"begabt" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "begabte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • begabt ← bbegabt · beagbt · begabbt · begabtt · begatb · begbat · beggabt · bgeabt
  • begabte ← bbegabte · beagbte · begabbte · begabet · begabtte · begatbe · begbate · beggabte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "begabt" and "begabte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈɡaːpt] versus [bəˈɡaːptə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "begabt" or "begabte"?
"begabt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,436 in our German list, against #28,551 for "begabte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "begabt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "begabte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,114,264 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "begabt" and "begabte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "begabte vs begebe". 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 #1,114,264 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