belebtenvsbelehrenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#32,946
“belebten” frequency rank
#19,151
“belehren” frequency rank
52097
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature belebten belehren
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs belebt jemandem eine wichtige Information geben

Where the eye mixes belebten and belehren

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. belebten and belehren follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
belebten
8 ch
belehren

Look-alike desk: belebten vs belehren

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: belebten is [bəˈleːptn̩] while belehren is [bəˈleːʁən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52097, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

belebten is recorded at frequency rank #32,946, classified as anadj, pronounced [bəˈleːptn̩]. belehren is at rank #19,151, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈleːʁən].

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 52097, this pair ranks #1,110,059 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of belebten vs belehren

Shared letters: beln. Private to "belebten": t. Private to "belehren": hr.

"belebten" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "belehren" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • belebtenbbelebten · beelbten · belbeten · belebbten · belebetn · belebtenn · belebtne · belebtten
  • belehrenbbelehren · beelhren · belehern · belehhren · belehrenn · belehrne · belehrren · belerhen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "belebten" and "belehren" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "belebten" is an adjective and "belehren" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "belebten" or "belehren"?
"belehren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,151 in our German list, against #32,946 for "belebten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "belebten" and "belehren" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "belebten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "belehren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,110,059 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "belebten" and "belehren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "belebte vs belebten". 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 #1,110,059 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