bewegvsbewegenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,002
“beweg” frequency rank
#1,960
“bewegen” frequency rank
49962
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature beweg bewegen
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs bewegen die Lage oder Stellung von etwas im Raum verändern; etwas von einem Ort zum anderen schaffen

Where the eye mixes beweg and bewegen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. beweg runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against bewegen's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
beweg
7 ch
bewegen

Why the eye confuses beweg with bewegen

A purely visual mix-up. beweg ([bəˈveːk]) and bewegen ([bəˈveːɡn̩]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “beweg” sits inside “bewegen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49962, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

beweg is recorded at frequency rank #48,002, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈveːk]. bewegen is at rank #1,960, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈveːɡn̩].

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 49962, this pair ranks #1,191,839 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of beweg vs bewegen

Shared letters: begw. Private to "beweg": -. Private to "bewegen": n.

"beweg" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "bewegen" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • beweg ← bbeweg · beewg · bewegg · bewge · bewweg · bweeg · ebweg
  • bewegen ← bbewegen · beewgen · beweegn · bewegenn · beweggen · bewegne · bewgeen · bewwegen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "beweg" and "bewegen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈveːk] versus [bəˈveːɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "beweg" or "bewegen" show up more?
"bewegen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,960 in our German list, against #48,002 for "beweg". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "beweg" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bewegen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,191,839 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "beweg" and "bewegen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beweg vs bewegst". 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 #1,191,839 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