Which to use
“Bekannter” is a noun and “bekanntes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,961
- “Bekannter” frequency rank
- #15,574
- “bekanntes” frequency rank
- 20535
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Bekannter | bekanntes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Person männlichen oder unbestimmten Geschlechts, die jemand kennt und die ihn kennt, ohne dass beide befreundet sind | Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs bekannt |
Where the eye mixes Bekannter and bekanntes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. Bekannter and bekanntes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between Bekannter and bekanntes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Bekannter is [bəˈkantɐ] while bekanntes is [bəˈkantəs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “Bekannter” becomes s in “bekanntes”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20535, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Bekannter is recorded at frequency rank #4,961, classified as anoun, pronounced [bəˈkantɐ]. bekanntes is at rank #15,574, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈkantəs].
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 20535, this pair ranks #1,896,585 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Bekannter vs bekanntes
Shared letters: abeknt. Private to "Bekannter": r. Private to "bekanntes": s.
"Bekannter" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCCVC · "bekanntes" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Bekannter" for "bekanntes" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Bekannter" or "bekanntes" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "Bekannter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bekanntes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,896,585 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Bekannter" and "bekanntes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bekanntes vs benannte". 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 #1,896,585 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.