betrittvsbetrübtWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#13,107
“betritt” frequency rank
#32,953
“betrübt” frequency rank
46060
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature betritt betrübt
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs betreten niedergeschlagen, traurig

Where the eye mixes betritt and betrübt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. betritt and betrübt follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
betritt
7 ch
betrübt

Why the eye confuses betritt with betrübt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: betritt is [bəˈtʁɪt] while betrübt is [bəˈtʁyːpt]. 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 46060, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

betritt is recorded at frequency rank #13,107, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈtʁɪt]. betrübt is at rank #32,953, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈtʁyːpt].

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 46060, this pair ranks #1,331,928 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of betritt vs betrübt

Shared letters: bert. Private to "betritt": i. Private to "betrübt": ü.

"betritt" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "betrübt" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • betrittbbetritt · bertitt · betirtt · betrit · betrritt · betrtit · bettritt · bteritt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "betritt" and "betrübt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "betritt" is a verb and "betrübt" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "betritt" or "betrübt" show up more?
"betritt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,107 in our German list, against #32,953 for "betrübt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "betritt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "betrübt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,331,928 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "betritt" and "betrübt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "betrübt vs Betrugs". 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 #1,331,928 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