beteiligevsbeteiligtWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: beteilige is a verb, beteiligt is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“beteilige” is a verb and “beteiligt” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,775
“beteilige” frequency rank
#2,053
“beteiligt” frequency rank
50828
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature beteilige beteiligt
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs beteiligen als Partizip Passiv, in „beteiligt sein“: Ein Teil sein von, teilnehmen, mitmachen, teilhaben, aufmerksam sein

Where the eye mixes beteilige and beteiligt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. beteilige (CVCVVCVCV) and beteiligt (CVCVVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
beteilige
9 ch
beteiligt

Why the eye confuses beteilige with beteiligt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: beteilige is [bəˈtaɪ̯lɪɡə] while beteiligt is [bəˈtaɪ̯lɪçt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “beteilige” becomes t in “beteiligt”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50828, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

beteilige is recorded at frequency rank #48,775, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈtaɪ̯lɪɡə]. beteiligt is at rank #2,053, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈtaɪ̯lɪçt].

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 50828, this pair ranks #1,158,856 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of beteilige vs beteiligt

Shared letters: begilt. Private to "beteilige": -. Private to "beteiligt": -.

"beteilige" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCVCV  ·  "beteiligt" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • beteiligebbeteilige · beetilige · beteiilge · beteilgie · beteilieg · beteiligge · beteillige · beteliige
  • beteiligtbbeteiligt · beetiligt · beteiilgt · beteilgit · beteiliggt · beteiligtt · beteilitg · beteilligt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "beteilige" and "beteiligt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "beteilige" is a verb and "beteiligt" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "beteilige" or "beteiligt"?
"beteiligt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,053 in our German list, against #48,775 for "beteilige". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "beteilige" and "beteiligt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "beteilige" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "beteiligt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,158,856 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "beteilige" and "beteiligt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beleidige vs beteilige". 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 #1,158,856 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