BirkevsBitteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#29,511
“Birke” frequency rank
#183
“Bitte” frequency rank
29694
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Birke Bitte
Definition Vertreter der Gattung Betula höfliche Ausdrucksform eines Wunsches, einer Aufforderung, eines Ersuchens

Where the eye mixes Birke and Bitte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Birke
5 ch
Bitte

Look-alike desk: Birke vs Bitte

A purely visual mix-up. Birke ([ˈbɪʁkə]) and Bitte ([ˈbɪtə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Birke is recorded at frequency rank #29,511, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbɪʁkə]. 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 29694, this pair ranks #1,762,000 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Birke vs Bitte

Shared letters: bei. Private to "Birke": kr. Private to "Bitte": t.

"Birke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Bitte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Birkebbirke · birek · birkke · birrke · brike · ibrke
  • Bittebbitte · bite · bitet · btite · ibtte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Birke" and "Bitte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈbɪʁkə] versus [ˈbɪtə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Birke" or "Bitte"?
"Bitte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #183 in our German list, against #29,511 for "Birke". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Birke" 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 #1,762,000 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Birke" and "Bitte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bible vs Birke". 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 #1,762,000 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