belehrenvsbenehmenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,151
“belehren” frequency rank
#7,291
“benehmen” frequency rank
26442
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature belehren benehmen
Definition jemandem eine wichtige Information geben sich verhalten, sich auf bestimmte Weise in der Umwelt zeigen

Where the eye mixes belehren and benehmen

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

8 ch
belehren
8 ch
benehmen

Why the eye confuses belehren with benehmen

A purely visual mix-up. belehren ([bəˈleːʁən]) and benehmen ([bəˈneːmən]) 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 26442, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

belehren is recorded at frequency rank #19,151, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈleːʁən]. benehmen is at rank #7,291, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈneːmən].

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 26442, this pair ranks #1,818,040 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of belehren vs benehmen

Shared letters: behn. Private to "belehren": lr. Private to "benehmen": m.

"belehren" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "benehmen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • belehren ← bbelehren · beelhren · belehern · belehhren · belehrenn · belehrne · belehrren · belerhen
  • benehmen ← bbenehmen · beenhmen · benehemn · benehhmen · benehmenn · benehmmen · benehmne · benemhen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "belehren" and "benehmen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈleːʁən] versus [bəˈneːmən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "belehren" or "benehmen" show up more?
"benehmen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,291 in our German list, against #19,151 for "belehren". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "belehren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "benehmen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,818,040 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "belehren" and "benehmen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "belebten vs belehren". 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 #1,818,040 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