Which to use
“begehren” and “belehren” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,828
- “begehren” frequency rank
- #19,151
- “belehren” frequency rank
- 37979
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | begehren | belehren |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nach jemandem oder etwas großes (sexuelles) Verlangen haben, jemanden oder etwas sehr gern haben wollen | jemandem eine wichtige Information geben |
Where the eye mixes begehren and belehren
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. begehren and belehren follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: begehren vs belehren
A purely visual mix-up. begehren ([bəˈɡeːʁən]) and belehren ([bəˈleːʁən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - g in “begehren” becomes l in “belehren”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37979, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
begehren is recorded at frequency rank #18,828, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈɡeːʁən]. belehren is at rank #19,151, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈleːʁən].
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 37979, this pair ranks #1,576,058 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of begehren vs belehren
Shared letters: behnr. Private to "begehren": g. Private to "belehren": l.
"begehren" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "belehren" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "begehren" and "belehren" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "begehren" or "belehren"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "begehren" and "belehren" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "begehren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "belehren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,576,058 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "begehren" and "belehren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "belebten vs belehren". 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 #1,576,058 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.