besagenvsbesorgenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,960
“besagen” frequency rank
#6,045
“besorgen” frequency rank
36005
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature besagen besorgen
Definition bedeuten, zum Ausdruck bringen, beinhalten etwas beschaffen

Where the eye mixes besagen and besorgen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. besagen runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against besorgen's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
besagen
8 ch
besorgen

Visual trap between besagen and besorgen

A purely visual mix-up. besagen ([bəˈzaːɡn̩]) and besorgen ([bəˈzɔʁɡn̩]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36005, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

besagen is recorded at frequency rank #29,960, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈzaːɡn̩]. besorgen is at rank #6,045, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈzɔʁɡn̩].

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 36005, this pair ranks #1,626,315 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of besagen vs besorgen

Shared letters: begns. Private to "besagen": a. Private to "besorgen": or.

"besagen" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "besorgen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • besagen ← bbesagen · beasgen · besaegn · besagenn · besaggen · besagne · besgaen · bessagen
  • besorgen ← bbesorgen · beosrgen · besogren · besoregn · besorgenn · besorggen · besorgne · besorrgen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "besagen" for "besorgen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈzaːɡn̩] versus [bəˈzɔʁɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "besagen" vs "besorgen" - which ranks higher?
"besorgen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,045 in our German list, against #29,960 for "besagen". 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 "besagen" and "besorgen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "besagen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "besorgen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,626,315 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "besagen" and "besorgen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "besagen vs besagtem". 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 #1,626,315 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