breitemvsbreiteteWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: breitem is a adjective, breitete is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#38,014
“breitem” frequency rank
#30,970
“breitete” frequency rank
68984
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature breitem breitete
Definition Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs breit 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs breiten

Where the eye mixes breitem and breitete

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. breitem runs 7 letters (CCVVCVC) against breitete's 8 (CCVVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
breitem
8 ch
breitete

Why the eye confuses breitem with breitete

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: breitem is [ˈbʁaɪ̯təm] while breitete is [ˈbʁaɪ̯tətə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68984, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

breitem is recorded at frequency rank #38,014, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈbʁaɪ̯təm]. breitete is at rank #30,970, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈbʁaɪ̯tətə].

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 68984, this pair ranks #490,704 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of breitem vs breitete

Shared letters: beirt. Private to "breitem": m. Private to "breitete": -.

"breitem" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "breitete" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • breitembbreitem · beritem · breietm · breitemm · breitme · breittem · bretiem · brietem
  • breitetebbreitete · beritete · breiette · breiteet · breitette · breittee · breittete · bretiete

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "breitem" for "breitete" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "breitem" is an adjective and "breitete" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "breitem" or "breitete" show up more?
"breitete" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,970 in our German list, against #38,014 for "breitem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "breitem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "breitete" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #490,704 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "breitem" and "breitete" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "betete vs breitete". 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 #490,704 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