erbetenvsergebenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#28,632
“erbeten” frequency rank
#2,244
“ergeben” frequency rank
30876
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature erbeten ergeben
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs erbitten bereit, jemandem zu dienen

Where the eye mixes erbeten and ergeben

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. erbeten and ergeben follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
erbeten
7 ch
ergeben

Visual trap between erbeten and ergeben

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: erbeten is [ɛɐ̯ˈbeːtn̩] while ergeben is [ɛɐ̯ˈɡeːbn̩]. 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 30876, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

erbeten is recorded at frequency rank #28,632, classified as averb, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈbeːtn̩]. ergeben is at rank #2,244, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈɡeːbn̩].

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 30876, this pair ranks #1,739,337 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of erbeten vs ergeben

Shared letters: benr. Private to "erbeten": t. Private to "ergeben": g.

"erbeten" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "ergeben" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • erbeten ← ebreten · erbbeten · erbeetn · erbetenn · erbetne · erbetten · erbteen · erebten
  • ergeben ← egreben · eregben · ergbeen · ergebben · ergebenn · ergebne · ergeebn · erggeben

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "erbeten" and "ergeben" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "erbeten" is a verb and "ergeben" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "erbeten" or "ergeben" show up more?
"ergeben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,244 in our German list, against #28,632 for "erbeten". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "erbeten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ergeben" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,739,337 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "erbeten" and "ergeben" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "erbeten vs erregten". 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 #1,739,337 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