Deutsch homophones

Celle/Zelle/zähle

"Celle" is a name; "Zelle" is a noun - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #5 of 483 German groups.

Data vintage

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "Celle" arrives as a name, while "Zelle" is a noun. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • No shared spelling stem: "Celle" is 5 letters, "Zelle" is 5; only the sound ties them.
  • No shared spelling stem: "Celle" is 5 letters, "zähle" is 5; only the sound ties them.
  • No shared spelling stem: "Zelle" is 5 letters, "zähle" is 5; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across Celle, Zelle, zähle: el. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • Celle

    5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCV

    Inventory cel · private c

  • Zelle

    5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCV

    Inventory elz · private z

  • zähle

    5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCV

    Inventory ehlzä · private hzä

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "Celle" when you mean: eine Stadt in Niedersachsen, Deutschland
  • Write "Zelle" when you mean: kleinste lebende Einheit eines Lebewesens
  • Write "zähle" when you mean: 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs zählen

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

  • Celleccelle · cele · celel · clele · eclle
  • Zelleezlle · zele · zelel · zlele · zzelle

Each spelling

Celle

name · /ˈt͡sɛlə/ · #12,685 frequency

eine Stadt in Niedersachsen, Deutschland

Zelle

noun · /ˈt͡sɛlə/ · #5,448 frequency

kleinste lebende Einheit eines Lebewesens

zähle

/ˈt͡sɛːlə/

1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs zählen

Nearby German homophone groups

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list