berühmtenvsberuhteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#4,771
“berühmten” frequency rank
#28,096
“beruhte” frequency rank
32867
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature berühmten beruhte
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs berühmt 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs beruhen

Where the eye mixes berühmten and beruhte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. berühmten runs 9 letters (CVCVCCCVC) against beruhte's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
berühmten
7 ch
beruhte

Visual trap between berühmten and beruhte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: berühmten is [bəˈʁyːmtn̩] while beruhte is [bəˈʁuːtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32867, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

berühmten is recorded at frequency rank #4,771, classified as anadj, pronounced [bəˈʁyːmtn̩]. beruhte is at rank #28,096, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈʁuːtə].

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 32867, this pair ranks #1,698,308 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of berühmten vs beruhte

Shared letters: behrt. Private to "berühmten": mnü. Private to "beruhte": u.

"berühmten" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCCVC  ·  "beruhte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • beruhte ← bberuhte · berhute · berruhte · beruhet · beruhhte · beruhtte · beruthe · beurhte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "berühmten" and "beruhte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "berühmten" is an adjective and "beruhte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "berühmten" or "beruhte"?
"berühmten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,771 in our German list, against #28,096 for "beruhte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "berühmten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "beruhte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,698,308 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "berühmten" and "beruhte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "berührten vs beruhte". 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 #1,698,308 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