besagenvsbewogenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#29,960
“besagen” frequency rank
#30,478
“bewogen” frequency rank
60438
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature besagen bewogen
Definition bedeuten, zum Ausdruck bringen, beinhalten Partizip Perfekt des Verbs bewegen

Where the eye mixes besagen and bewogen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. besagen and bewogen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
besagen
7 ch
bewogen

Look-alike desk: besagen vs bewogen

A purely visual mix-up. besagen ([bəˈzaːɡn̩]) and bewogen ([bəˈvoːɡn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60438, 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]. bewogen is at rank #30,478, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈvoːɡn̩].

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 60438, this pair ranks #787,000 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of besagen vs bewogen

Shared letters: begn. Private to "besagen": as. Private to "bewogen": ow.

"besagen" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "bewogen" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • besagenbbesagen · beasgen · besaegn · besagenn · besaggen · besagne · besgaen · bessagen
  • bewogenbbewogen · beowgen · bewgoen · bewoegn · bewogenn · bewoggen · bewogne · bewwogen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "besagen" for "bewogen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈzaːɡn̩] versus [bəˈvoːɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "besagen" vs "bewogen" - which ranks higher?
"besagen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,960 in our German list, against #30,478 for "bewogen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "besagen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bewogen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #787,000 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "besagen" and "bewogen" 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 #787,000 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