Which to use
“been” and “begin” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,074
- “been” frequency rank
- #48,361
- “begin” frequency rank
- 64435
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | been | begin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé de be. | Commencer, se mettre à. |
Where the eye mixes been and begin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between been and begin
A purely visual mix-up. been (\bɪn\) and begin (\bɪˈgɪn\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64435, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
been is recorded at frequency rank #16,074, classified as averb, pronounced \bɪn\. begin is at rank #48,361, tagged as averb, pronounced \bɪˈgɪn\.
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 64435, this pair ranks #77,107 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of been vs begin
Shared letters: ben. Private to "been": -. Private to "begin": gi.
"been" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "begin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "been" for "begin" ever safe?
Which is more common, "been" or "begin"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "been" and "begin" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "been" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "begin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #77,107 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "been" and "begin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "begin vs beton". 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 #77,107 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.