begabtenvsbelastenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#39,233
“begabten” frequency rank
#9,155
“belasten” frequency rank
48388
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature begabten belasten
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs begabt bewirken, dass etwas eine störende oder schädliche Wirkung auf etwas hat

Where the eye mixes begabten and belasten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. begabten and belasten 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
belasten

Why the eye confuses begabten with belasten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: begabten is [bəˈɡaːptn̩] while belasten is [bəˈlastn̩]. 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 48388, 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]. belasten is at rank #9,155, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈlastn̩].

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 48388, this pair ranks #1,250,348 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of begabten vs belasten

Shared letters: abent. Private to "begabten": g. Private to "belasten": ls.

"begabten" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "belasten" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • begabtenbbegabten · beagbten · begabbten · begabetn · begabtenn · begabtne · begabtten · begatben
  • belastenbbelasten · bealsten · belasetn · belassten · belastenn · belastne · belastten · belatsen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "begabten" and "belasten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "begabten" is an adjective and "belasten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "begabten" or "belasten" show up more?
"belasten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,155 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.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "begabten" and "belasten" 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 "belasten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,250,348 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "begabten" and "belasten" 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 #1,250,348 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