Which to use
“begehren” and “berühren” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,828
- “begehren” frequency rank
- #6,512
- “berühren” frequency rank
- 25340
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | begehren | berühren |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nach jemandem oder etwas großes (sexuelles) Verlangen haben, jemanden oder etwas sehr gern haben wollen | mit dem Äußeren seines Körpers mit einer Sache oder einer Person in Kontakt kommen |
Where the eye mixes begehren and berühren
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. begehren and berühren follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between begehren and berühren
A purely visual mix-up. begehren ([bəˈɡeːʁən]) and berühren ([bəˈʁyːʁən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25340, 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]. berühren is at rank #6,512, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈʁyːʁən].
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 25340, this pair ranks #1,834,756 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of begehren vs berühren
Shared letters: behnr. Private to "begehren": g. Private to "berühren": ü.
"begehren" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "berühren" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- begehren ← bbegehren · beeghren · begehern · begehhren · begehrenn · begehrne · begehrren · begerhen
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "begehren" and "berühren" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "begehren" vs "berühren" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "begehren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "berühren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,834,756 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "begehren" and "berühren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "berühren vs berührende". 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 #1,834,756 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.