begehrtvsbegehrteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“begehrt” and “begehrte” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#11,820
“begehrt” frequency rank
#22,270
“begehrte” frequency rank
34090
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature begehrt begehrte
Definition eine von vielen verlangte Person oder Sache Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs begehrt

Where the eye mixes begehrt and begehrte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. begehrt runs 7 letters (CVCVCCC) against begehrte's 8 (CVCVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
begehrt
8 ch
begehrte

Look-alike desk: begehrt vs begehrte

A purely visual mix-up. begehrt ([bəˈɡeːɐ̯t]) and begehrte ([bəˈɡeːɐ̯tə]) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “begehrt” sits inside “begehrte”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34090, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

begehrt is recorded at frequency rank #11,820, classified as anadj, pronounced [bəˈɡeːɐ̯t]. begehrte is at rank #22,270, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈɡeːɐ̯tə].

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 34090, this pair ranks #1,671,226 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of begehrt vs begehrte

Shared letters: beghrt. Private to "begehrt": -. Private to "begehrte": -.

"begehrt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "begehrte" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • begehrtbbegehrt · beeghrt · begehhrt · begehrrt · begehrtt · begehtr · begerht · beggehrt
  • begehrtebbegehrte · beeghrte · begehhrte · begehret · begehrrte · begehrtte · begehtre · begerhte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "begehrt" for "begehrte" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈɡeːɐ̯t] versus [bəˈɡeːɐ̯tə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "begehrt" or "begehrte" show up more?
"begehrt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,820 in our German list, against #22,270 for "begehrte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "begehrt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "begehrte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,671,226 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "begehrt" and "begehrte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "begehrte vs bewerte". 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 #1,671,226 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