besagtemvsbesagterTell them apart

Which to use

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

#49,519
“besagtem” frequency rank
#33,471
“besagter” frequency rank
82990
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature besagtem besagter
Definition Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs besagt Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs besagt

Where the eye mixes besagtem and besagter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. besagtem and besagter follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
besagtem
8 ch
besagter

Visual trap between besagtem and besagter

A purely visual mix-up. besagtem ([bəˈzaːktəm]) and besagter ([bəˈzaːktɐ]) 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 a single letter - m in “besagtem” becomes r in “besagter”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

besagtem is recorded at frequency rank #49,519, classified as anadj, pronounced [bəˈzaːktəm]. besagter is at rank #33,471, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈzaːktɐ].

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 82990, this pair ranks #147,526 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of besagtem vs besagter

Shared letters: abegst. Private to "besagtem": m. Private to "besagter": r.

"besagtem" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "besagter" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • besagtembbesagtem · beasgtem · besagetm · besaggtem · besagtemm · besagtme · besagttem · besatgem
  • besagterbbesagter · beasgter · besagetr · besaggter · besagterr · besagtre · besagtter · besatger

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "besagtem" and "besagter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈzaːktəm] versus [bəˈzaːktɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "besagtem" or "besagter" show up more?
"besagter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,471 in our German list, against #49,519 for "besagtem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "besagtem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "besagter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #147,526 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "besagtem" and "besagter" 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 #147,526 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