begabtevsbemalteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#28,551
“begabte” frequency rank
#40,430
“bemalte” frequency rank
68981
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature begabte bemalte
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs begabt Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs bemalt

Where the eye mixes begabte and bemalte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. begabte and bemalte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
begabte
7 ch
bemalte

Why the eye confuses begabte with bemalte

A purely visual mix-up. begabte ([bəˈɡaːptə]) and bemalte ([bəˈmaːltə]) 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 68981, 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]. bemalte is at rank #40,430, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈmaːltə].

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 68981, this pair ranks #490,805 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of begabte vs bemalte

Shared letters: abet. Private to "begabte": g. Private to "bemalte": lm.

"begabte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "bemalte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • begabte ← bbegabte · beagbte · begabbte · begabet · begabtte · begatbe · begbate · beggabte
  • bemalte ← bbemalte · beamlte · bemalet · bemallte · bemaltte · bematle · bemlate · bemmalte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "begabte" and "bemalte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈɡaːptə] versus [bəˈmaːltə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "begabte" vs "bemalte" - which ranks higher?
"begabte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,551 in our German list, against #40,430 for "bemalte". 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 "begabte" and "bemalte" 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 "bemalte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #490,805 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "begabte" and "bemalte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "behaltet vs bemalte". 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 #490,805 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