begabtvsbegehtWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: begabt is a adjective, begeht is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#23,436
“begabt” frequency rank
#13,556
“begeht” frequency rank
36992
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature begabt begeht
Definition Talent besitzend 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs begehen

Where the eye mixes begabt and begeht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. begabt and begeht follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
begabt
6 ch
begeht

Why the eye confuses begabt with begeht

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: begabt is [bəˈɡaːpt] while begeht is [bəˈɡeːt]. 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 36992, 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]. begeht is at rank #13,556, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈɡeːt].

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 36992, this pair ranks #1,601,553 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of begabt vs begeht

Shared letters: begt. Private to "begabt": a. Private to "begeht": h.

"begabt" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "begeht" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • begabt ← bbegabt · beagbt · begabbt · begabtt · begatb · begbat · beggabt · bgeabt
  • begeht ← bbegeht · beeght · begehht · begehtt · begeth · beggeht · beghet · bgeeht

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "begabt" and "begeht" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "begabt" is an adjective and "begeht" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "begabt" or "begeht" show up more?
"begeht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,556 in our German list, against #23,436 for "begabt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "begabt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "begeht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,601,553 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "begabt" and "begeht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "begabt 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 #1,601,553 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