Which to use
“begründen” is a verb and “begründet” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,875
- “begründen” frequency rank
- #3,711
- “begründet” frequency rank
- 11586
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | begründen | begründet |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | einen Grund, eine Ursache für etwas benennen | berechtigt; mit einem Grund, einer Ursache belegt |
Where the eye mixes begründen and begründet
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. begründen and begründet follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: begründen vs begründet
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: begründen is [bəˈɡʁʏndn̩] while begründet is [bəˈɡʁʏndət]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “begründen” becomes t in “begründet”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
begründen is recorded at frequency rank #7,875, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈɡʁʏndn̩]. begründet is at rank #3,711, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈɡʁʏndət].
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 11586, this pair ranks #1,969,058 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of begründen vs begründet
Shared letters: bdegnrü. Private to "begründen": -. Private to "begründet": t.
"begründen" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC · "begründet" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "begründen" and "begründet" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "begründen" or "begründet" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "begründen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "begründet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,969,058 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "begründen" and "begründet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "begründen vs Bekunden". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #1,969,058 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.