behaartevsbehalteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#26,328
“behaarte” frequency rank
#15,834
“behalte” frequency rank
42162
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature behaarte behalte
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs behaart 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs behalten

Where the eye mixes behaarte and behalte

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

8 ch
behaarte
7 ch
behalte

Visual trap between behaarte and behalte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: behaarte is [bəˈhaːɐ̯tə] while behalte is [bəˈhaltə]. 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 42162, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

behaarte is recorded at frequency rank #26,328, classified as anadj, pronounced [bəˈhaːɐ̯tə]. behalte is at rank #15,834, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈhaltə].

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 42162, this pair ranks #1,457,724 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of behaarte vs behalte

Shared letters: abeht. Private to "behaarte": r. Private to "behalte": l.

"behaarte" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV  ·  "behalte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • behaarte ← bbehaarte · beaharte · behaaret · behaarrte · behaartte · behaatre · beharate · beharte
  • behalte ← bbehalte · beahlte · behalet · behallte · behaltte · behatle · behhalte · behlate

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "behaarte" for "behalte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "behaarte" is an adjective and "behalte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "behaarte" vs "behalte" - which ranks higher?
"behalte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,834 in our German list, against #26,328 for "behaarte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "behaarte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "behalte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,457,724 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "behaarte" and "behalte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "behaarte vs behaarten". 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 #1,457,724 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