begebevsbelebteTell them apart

Quick tell: begebe is a verb, belebte is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#49,510
“begebe” frequency rank
#45,802
“belebte” frequency rank
95312
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature begebe belebte
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs begeben Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs belebt

Where the eye mixes begebe and belebte

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

6 ch
begebe
7 ch
belebte

Look-alike desk: begebe vs belebte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: begebe is [bəˈɡeːbə] while belebte is [bəˈleːptə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 95312, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

begebe is recorded at frequency rank #49,510, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈɡeːbə]. belebte is at rank #45,802, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈleːptə].

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 95312, this pair ranks #12,259 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of begebe vs belebte

Shared letters: be. Private to "begebe": g. Private to "belebte": lt.

"begebe" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "belebte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • begebebbegebe · beegbe · begbee · begebbe · begeeb · beggebe · bgeebe · ebgebe
  • belebtebbelebte · beelbte · belbete · belebbte · belebet · belebtte · beletbe · bellebte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "begebe" and "belebte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "begebe" is a verb and "belebte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "begebe" or "belebte" show up more?
"belebte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,802 in our German list, against #49,510 for "begebe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "begebe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "belebte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,259 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "begebe" and "belebte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "begebe vs begegne". 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 #12,259 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