begabtevsbehalteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#28,551
“begabte” frequency rank
#15,834
“behalte” frequency rank
44385
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature begabte behalte
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs begabt 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs behalten

Where the eye mixes begabte and behalte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
begabte
7 ch
behalte

Look-alike desk: begabte vs behalte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: begabte is [bəˈɡaːptə] while behalte is [bəˈhaltə]. 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 44385, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

begabte is recorded at frequency rank #28,551, classified as anadj, pronounced [bəˈɡaːptə]. behalte is at rank #15,834, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈhaltə].

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 44385, this pair ranks #1,387,850 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of begabte vs behalte

Shared letters: abet. Private to "begabte": g. Private to "behalte": hl.

"begabte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "behalte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • begabtebbegabte · beagbte · begabbte · begabet · begabtte · begatbe · begbate · beggabte
  • behaltebbehalte · beahlte · behalet · behallte · behaltte · behatle · behhalte · behlate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "begabte" and "behalte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "begabte" is an adjective and "behalte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "begabte" or "behalte"?
"behalte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,834 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "begabte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "behalte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,387,850 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "begabte" and "behalte" 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 #1,387,850 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