bemühevsbemühenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#28,560
“bemühe” frequency rank
#6,041
“bemühen” frequency rank
34601
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bemühe bemühen
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs bemühen sich Mühe geben, sich anstrengen

Where the eye mixes bemühe and bemühen

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

6 ch
bemühe
7 ch
bemühen

Visual trap between bemühe and bemühen

A purely visual mix-up. bemühe ([bəˈmyːə]) and bemühen ([bəˈmyːən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “bemühe” sits inside “bemühen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34601, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bemühe is recorded at frequency rank #28,560, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈmyːə]. bemühen is at rank #6,041, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈmyːən].

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 34601, this pair ranks #1,659,536 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bemühe vs bemühen

Shared letters: behmü. Private to "bemühe": -. Private to "bemühen": n.

"bemühe" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "bemühen" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bemühe" for "bemühen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈmyːə] versus [bəˈmyːən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bemühe" vs "bemühen" - which ranks higher?
"bemühen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,041 in our German list, against #28,560 for "bemühe". 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 "bemühe" and "bemühen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bemühe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bemühen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,659,536 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bemühe" and "bemühen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "befuhr vs bemühe". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,659,536 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