bewegevsbewegtenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#20,529
“bewege” frequency rank
#14,754
“bewegten” frequency rank
35283
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bewege bewegten
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs bewegen Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs bewegt

Where the eye mixes bewege and bewegten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. bewege runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against bewegten's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
bewege
8 ch
bewegten

Why the eye confuses bewege with bewegten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bewege is [bəˈveːɡə] while bewegten is [bəˈveːktn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35283, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bewege is recorded at frequency rank #20,529, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈveːɡə]. bewegten is at rank #14,754, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈveːktn̩].

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 35283, this pair ranks #1,643,615 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bewege vs bewegten

Shared letters: begw. Private to "bewege": -. Private to "bewegten": nt.

"bewege" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "bewegten" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bewegebbewege · beewge · beweeg · bewegge · bewgee · bewwege · bweege · ebwege
  • bewegtenbbewegten · beewgten · bewegetn · beweggten · bewegtenn · bewegtne · bewegtten · bewetgen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bewege" for "bewegten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bewege" is a verb and "bewegten" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "bewege" vs "bewegten" - which ranks higher?
"bewegten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,754 in our German list, against #20,529 for "bewege". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bewege" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bewegten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,643,615 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bewege" and "bewegten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "begebe vs bewege". 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 #1,643,615 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