begehenvsbegehrtenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#7,579
“begehen” frequency rank
#19,839
“begehrten” frequency rank
27418
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature begehen begehrten
Definition ein Objekt beschreiten, um es zu inspizieren; auf etwas zu Fuß gehen Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs begehrt

Where the eye mixes begehen and begehrten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. begehen runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against begehrten's 9 (CVCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
begehen
9 ch
begehrten

Visual trap between begehen and begehrten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: begehen is [bəˈɡeːən] while begehrten is [bəˈɡeːɐ̯tn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 27418, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

begehen is recorded at frequency rank #7,579, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈɡeːən]. begehrten is at rank #19,839, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈɡeːɐ̯tn̩].

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 27418, this pair ranks #1,802,084 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of begehen vs begehrten

Shared letters: beghn. Private to "begehen": -. Private to "begehrten": rt.

"begehen" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "begehrten" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • begehenbbegehen · beeghen · begeehn · begehenn · begehhen · begehne · beggehen · begheen
  • begehrtenbbegehrten · beeghrten · begehhrten · begehretn · begehrrten · begehrtenn · begehrtne · begehrtten

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "begehen" and "begehrten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "begehen" is a verb and "begehrten" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "begehen" or "begehrten" show up more?
"begehen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,579 in our German list, against #19,839 for "begehrten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "begehen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "begehrten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,802,084 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "begehen" and "begehrten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "begehrten vs berührten". 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 #1,802,084 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