begehrtevsbelehrtTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#22,270
“begehrte” frequency rank
#20,852
“belehrt” frequency rank
43122
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature begehrte belehrt
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs begehrt Partizip Perfekt des Verbs belehren

Where the eye mixes begehrte and belehrt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. begehrte runs 8 letters (CVCVCCCV) against belehrt's 7 (CVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
begehrte
7 ch
belehrt

Visual trap between begehrte and belehrt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: begehrte is [bəˈɡeːɐ̯tə] while belehrt is [bəˈleːɐ̯t]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 43122, 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]. belehrt is at rank #20,852, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈleːɐ̯t].

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 43122, this pair ranks #1,427,973 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of begehrte vs belehrt

Shared letters: behrt. Private to "begehrte": g. Private to "belehrt": l.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • begehrtebbegehrte · beeghrte · begehhrte · begehret · begehrrte · begehrtte · begehtre · begerhte
  • belehrtbbelehrt · beelhrt · belehhrt · belehrrt · belehrtt · belehtr · belerht · belhert

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "begehrte" and "belehrt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "begehrte" is an adjective and "belehrt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "begehrte" or "belehrt" show up more?
"belehrt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,852 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

Eye-level mix-up between "begehrte" and "belehrt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "begehrte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "belehrt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,427,973 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "begehrte" and "belehrt" 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 #1,427,973 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