Which to use
“begegnen” is a verb and “belegten” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,146
- “begegnen” frequency rank
- #13,557
- “belegten” frequency rank
- 18703
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | begegnen | belegten |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | jemanden, meist eher zufällig, treffen | Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs belegt |
Where the eye mixes begegnen and belegten
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. begegnen and belegten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses begegnen with belegten
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: begegnen is [bəˈɡeːɡnən] while belegten is [bəˈleːktn̩]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18703, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
begegnen is recorded at frequency rank #5,146, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈɡeːɡnən]. belegten is at rank #13,557, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈleːktn̩].
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 18703, this pair ranks #1,915,699 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of begegnen vs belegten
Shared letters: begn. Private to "begegnen": -. Private to "belegten": lt.
"begegnen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "belegten" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "begegnen" and "belegten" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "begegnen" or "belegten" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "begegnen" and "belegten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "begegnen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "belegten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,915,699 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "begegnen" and "belegten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beilegen vs belegten". 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 #1,915,699 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.