bejahenvsbesagenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“bejahen” and “besagen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#45,800
“bejahen” frequency rank
#29,960
“besagen” frequency rank
75760
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bejahen besagen
Definition seine Zustimmung geben; ja sagen bedeuten, zum Ausdruck bringen, beinhalten

Where the eye mixes bejahen and besagen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. bejahen and besagen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
bejahen
7 ch
besagen

Visual trap between bejahen and besagen

A purely visual mix-up. bejahen ([bəˈjaːən]) and besagen ([bəˈzaːɡn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75760, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bejahen is recorded at frequency rank #45,800, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈjaːən]. besagen is at rank #29,960, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈzaːɡn̩].

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 75760, this pair ranks #300,055 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bejahen vs besagen

Shared letters: aben. Private to "bejahen": hj. Private to "besagen": gs.

"bejahen" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "besagen" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bejahen ← bbejahen · beajhen · bejaehn · bejahenn · bejahhen · bejahne · bejhaen · bejjahen
  • besagen ← bbesagen · beasgen · besaegn · besagenn · besaggen · besagne · besgaen · bessagen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bejahen" and "besagen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈjaːən] versus [bəˈzaːɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bejahen" or "besagen"?
"besagen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,960 in our German list, against #45,800 for "bejahen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bejahen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "besagen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #300,055 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bejahen" and "besagen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bejahen vs bemalen". 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 #300,055 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