beginnenvsbegonneneWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: beginnen is a verb, begonnene is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#1,722
“beginnen” frequency rank
#25,462
“begonnene” frequency rank
27184
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature beginnen begonnene
Definition etwas in Gang setzen, etwas starten, etwas anfangen Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs begonnen

Where the eye mixes beginnen and begonnene

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. beginnen runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against begonnene's 9 (CVCVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
beginnen
9 ch
begonnene

Visual trap between beginnen and begonnene

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: beginnen is [bəˈɡɪnən] while begonnene is [bəˈɡɔnənə]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27184, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

beginnen is recorded at frequency rank #1,722, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈɡɪnən]. begonnene is at rank #25,462, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈɡɔnənə].

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 27184, this pair ranks #1,805,922 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of beginnen vs begonnene

Shared letters: begn. Private to "beginnen": i. Private to "begonnene": o.

"beginnen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "begonnene" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • beginnen ← bbeginnen · begginnen · beginen · beginenn · beginnenn · beginnne · begninen · beignnen
  • begonnene ← bbegonnene · beggonnene · begnonene · begonene · begonenne · begonneen · begonnenne · begonnnee

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "beginnen" for "begonnene" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "beginnen" is a verb and "begonnene" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "beginnen" vs "begonnene" - which ranks higher?
"beginnen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,722 in our German list, against #25,462 for "begonnene". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "beginnen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "begonnene" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,805,922 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "beginnen" and "begonnene" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "begangene vs begonnene". 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 #1,805,922 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