bettevsBitteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: bette is a verb, Bitte is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bette” is a verb and “Bitte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,645
“bette” frequency rank
#183
“Bitte” frequency rank
24828
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bette Bitte
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs betten höfliche Ausdrucksform eines Wunsches, einer Aufforderung, eines Ersuchens

Where the eye mixes bette and Bitte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
bette
5 ch
Bitte

Visual trap between bette and Bitte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bette is [ˈbɛtə] while Bitte is [ˈbɪtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “bette” becomes i in “Bitte”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24828, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bette is recorded at frequency rank #24,645, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈbɛtə]. Bitte is at rank #183, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbɪtə].

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 24828, this pair ranks #1,842,115 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bette vs Bitte

Shared letters: bet. Private to "bette": -. Private to "Bitte": i.

"bette" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Bitte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bettebbette · bete · btete · ebtte
  • Bittebbitte · bite · bitet · btite · ibtte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bette" and "Bitte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bette" is a verb and "Bitte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "bette" or "Bitte" show up more?
"Bitte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #183 in our German list, against #24,645 for "bette". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bette" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Bitte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,842,115 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bette" and "Bitte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "betrete vs bette". 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 #1,842,115 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