begabtenvsbegangenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#39,233
“begabten” frequency rank
#4,768
“begangen” frequency rank
44001
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature begabten begangen
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs begabt Partizip Perfekt des Verbs begehen

Where the eye mixes begabten and begangen

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

8 ch
begabten
8 ch
begangen

Look-alike desk: begabten vs begangen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: begabten is [bəˈɡaːptn̩] while begangen is [bəˈɡaŋən]. 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 44001, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

begabten is recorded at frequency rank #39,233, classified as anadj, pronounced [bəˈɡaːptn̩]. begangen is at rank #4,768, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈɡaŋən].

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 44001, this pair ranks #1,400,256 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of begabten vs begangen

Shared letters: abegn. Private to "begabten": t. Private to "begangen": -.

"begabten" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "begangen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • begabtenbbegabten · beagbten · begabbten · begabetn · begabtenn · begabtne · begabtten · begatben
  • begangenbbegangen · beagngen · begagnen · beganegn · begangenn · beganggen · begangne · beganngen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "begabten" for "begangen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "begabten" is an adjective and "begangen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "begabten" vs "begangen" - which ranks higher?
"begangen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,768 in our German list, against #39,233 for "begabten". 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 "begabten" and "begangen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "begabten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "begangen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,400,256 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "begabten" and "begangen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bebauten vs begabten". 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 #1,400,256 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