bereitenvsbreitesTell them apart

Quick tell: bereiten is a verb, breites is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#4,865
“bereiten” frequency rank
#10,829
“breites” frequency rank
15694
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bereiten breites
Definition etwas zur späteren Verwendung anrichten, herrichten Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs breit

Where the eye mixes bereiten and breites

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
bereiten
7 ch
breites

Look-alike desk: bereiten vs breites

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bereiten is [bəˈʁaɪ̯tn̩] while breites is [ˈbʁaɪ̯təs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bereiten is recorded at frequency rank #4,865, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈʁaɪ̯tn̩]. breites is at rank #10,829, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbʁaɪ̯təs].

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 15694, this pair ranks #1,941,885 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bereiten vs breites

Shared letters: beirt. Private to "bereiten": n. Private to "breites": s.

"bereiten" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC  ·  "breites" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bereitenbbereiten · beeriten · bereietn · bereitenn · bereitne · bereitten · beretien · berieten
  • breitesbbreites · berites · breiets · breitess · breitse · breittes · breties · brietes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bereiten" for "breites" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bereiten" is a verb and "breites" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "bereiten" or "breites" show up more?
"bereiten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,865 in our German list, against #10,829 for "breites". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bereiten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "breites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,941,885 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bereiten" and "breites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bettes vs breites". 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 #1,941,885 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