beruhigenvsberührtenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#7,878
“beruhigen” frequency rank
#47,258
“berührten” frequency rank
55136
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature beruhigen berührten
Definition zur Ruhe bringen; ruhig machen Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs berührt

Where the eye mixes beruhigen and berührten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. beruhigen (CVCVCVCVC) and berührten (CVCVCCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
beruhigen
9 ch
berührten

Why the eye confuses beruhigen with berührten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: beruhigen is [bəˈʁuːɪɡn̩] while berührten is [bəˈʁyːɐ̯tn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55136, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

beruhigen is recorded at frequency rank #7,878, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈʁuːɪɡn̩]. berührten is at rank #47,258, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈʁyːɐ̯tn̩].

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 55136, this pair ranks #991,355 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of beruhigen vs berührten

Shared letters: behnr. Private to "beruhigen": giu. Private to "berührten": .

"beruhigen" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC  ·  "berührten" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • beruhigenbberuhigen · berhuigen · berruhigen · beruhgien · beruhhigen · beruhiegn · beruhigenn · beruhiggen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "beruhigen" and "berührten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "beruhigen" is a verb and "berührten" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "beruhigen" or "berührten" show up more?
"beruhigen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,878 in our German list, against #47,258 for "berührten". 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 "beruhigen" and "berührten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "beruhigen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "berührten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #991,355 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "beruhigen" and "berührten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "berührend vs berührten". 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 #991,355 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