besteuernvsbeteuertWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,772
“besteuern” frequency rank
#44,487
“beteuert” frequency rank
93259
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature besteuern beteuert
Definition auf eine Ware/Leistung staatliche Abgaben (Steuern) erheben; für etwas von jemandem Steuern verlangen/eintreiben Partizip Perfekt des Verbs beteuern

Where the eye mixes besteuern and beteuert

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
besteuern
8 ch
beteuert

Visual trap between besteuern and beteuert

A purely visual mix-up. besteuern ([bəˈʃtɔɪ̯ɐn]) and beteuert ([bəˈtɔɪ̯ɐt]) 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 93259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

besteuern is recorded at frequency rank #48,772, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈʃtɔɪ̯ɐn]. beteuert is at rank #44,487, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈtɔɪ̯ɐt].

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 93259, this pair ranks #24,063 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of besteuern vs beteuert

Shared letters: bertu. Private to "besteuern": ns. Private to "beteuert": -.

"besteuern" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC  ·  "beteuert" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • besteuernbbesteuern · besetuern · bessteuern · besteeurn · besteuenr · besteuernn · besteuerrn · besteuren
  • beteuertbbeteuert · beetuert · beteeurt · beteuerrt · beteuertt · beteuetr · beteuret · betteuert

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "besteuern" and "beteuert" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈʃtɔɪ̯ɐn] versus [bəˈtɔɪ̯ɐt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "besteuern" or "beteuert"?
"beteuert" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,487 in our German list, against #48,772 for "besteuern". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "besteuern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "beteuert" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,063 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "besteuern" and "beteuert" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "befeuern vs besteuern". 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 #24,063 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