begehrtevsbegehtWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: begehrte is a adjective, begeht is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#22,270
“begehrte” frequency rank
#13,556
“begeht” frequency rank
35826
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature begehrte begeht
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs begehrt 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs begehen

Where the eye mixes begehrte and begeht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. begehrte runs 8 letters (CVCVCCCV) against begeht's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
begehrte
6 ch
begeht

Look-alike desk: begehrte vs begeht

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: begehrte is [bəˈɡeːɐ̯tə] while begeht is [bəˈɡeːt]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

begehrte is recorded at frequency rank #22,270, classified as anadj, pronounced [bəˈɡeːɐ̯tə]. begeht is at rank #13,556, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈɡeːt].

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 35826, this pair ranks #1,630,585 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of begehrte vs begeht

Shared letters: beght. Private to "begehrte": r. Private to "begeht": -.

"begehrte" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV  ·  "begeht" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • begehrtebbegehrte · beeghrte · begehhrte · begehret · begehrrte · begehrtte · begehtre · begerhte
  • begehtbbegeht · beeght · begehht · begehtt · begeth · beggeht · beghet · bgeeht

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "begehrte" and "begeht" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "begehrte" is an adjective and "begeht" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "begehrte" or "begeht" show up more?
"begeht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,556 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 "begehrte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "begeht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,630,585 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "begehrte" and "begeht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "begebe vs begeht". 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 #1,630,585 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