betretevsbetretenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#48,776
“betrete” frequency rank
#4,774
“betreten” frequency rank
53550
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature betrete betreten
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs betreten peinlich berührt

Where the eye mixes betrete and betreten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. betrete runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against betreten's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
betrete
8 ch
betreten

Look-alike desk: betrete vs betreten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: betrete is [bəˈtʁeːtə] while betreten is [bəˈtʁeːtn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “betrete” sits inside “betreten”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

betrete is recorded at frequency rank #48,776, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈtʁeːtə]. betreten is at rank #4,774, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈtʁeːtn̩].

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 53550, this pair ranks #1,053,556 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of betrete vs betreten

Shared letters: bert. Private to "betrete": -. Private to "betreten": n.

"betrete" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "betreten" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • betretebbetrete · bertete · beterte · betreet · betrette · betrrete · betrtee · bettrete
  • betretenbbetreten · berteten · beterten · betreetn · betretenn · betretne · betretten · betrreten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "betrete" for "betreten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "betrete" is a verb and "betreten" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "betrete" vs "betreten" - which ranks higher?
"betreten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,774 in our German list, against #48,776 for "betrete". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "betrete" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "betreten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,053,556 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "betrete" and "betreten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "betrete vs betreutes". 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 #1,053,556 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