Which to use
“besiegen” is a verb and “besiegte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,434
- “besiegen” frequency rank
- #16,097
- “besiegte” frequency rank
- 26531
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | besiegen | besiegte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | den Sieg über jemanden erringen | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs besiegt |
Where the eye mixes besiegen and besiegte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. besiegen (CVCVVCVC) and besiegte (CVCVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between besiegen and besiegte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: besiegen is [bəˈziːɡn̩] while besiegte is [bəˈziːktə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 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 26531, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
besiegen is recorded at frequency rank #10,434, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈziːɡn̩]. besiegte is at rank #16,097, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈziːktə].
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 26531, this pair ranks #1,816,591 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of besiegen vs besiegte
Shared letters: begis. Private to "besiegen": n. Private to "besiegte": t.
"besiegen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "besiegte" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "besiegen" for "besiegte" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "besiegen" or "besiegte" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "besiegen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "besiegte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,816,591 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "besiegen" and "besiegte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beilegen vs besiegen". 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 #1,816,591 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.