bistvsböseWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#225
“bist” frequency rank
#1,543
“böse” frequency rank
1768
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bist böse
Definition 2. Person Singular Präsens Indikativ des Verbs sein moralisch falsch, nicht gut; bösartig

Where the eye mixes bist and böse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
bist
4 ch
böse

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bist is [bɪst] while böse is [ˈbøːzə]. 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 1768, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bist is recorded at frequency rank #225, classified as averb, pronounced [bɪst]. böse is at rank #1,543, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbøːzə].

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 1768, this pair ranks #2,003,776 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bist vs böse

Shared letters: bs. Private to "bist": it. Private to "böse": .

"bist" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "böse" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bistbbist · bisst · bistt · bsit · ibst

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bist" and "böse" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bist" is a verb and "böse" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "bist" or "böse"?
"bist" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #225 in our German list, against #1,543 for "böse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "bist" and "böse". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bist" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "böse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,003,776 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bist" and "böse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "BfS vs böse". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list