Which to use
“acht” is a num and “achtel” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #899
- “acht” frequency rank
- #39,190
- “achtel” frequency rank
- 40089
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | acht | achtel |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | die Kardinalzahl zwischen sieben und neun | aus einem von acht gleich großen Teilen bestehend |
Where the eye mixes acht and achtel
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. acht runs 4 letters (VCCC) against achtel's 6 (VCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: acht vs achtel
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acht is [axt] while achtel is [ˈaxtl̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “acht” sits inside “achtel”, and the parts of speech differ too (num vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40089, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
acht is recorded at frequency rank #899, classified as anum, pronounced [axt]. achtel is at rank #39,190, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaxtl̩].
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 40089, this pair ranks #1,518,368 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of acht vs achtel
Shared letters: acht. Private to "acht": -. Private to "achtel": el.
"acht" · 4 letters · shape VCCC · "achtel" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "acht" and "achtel" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "acht" vs "achtel" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "acht" and "achtel" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "acht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "achtel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,518,368 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "acht" and "achtel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "achtel vs achtete". 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 #1,518,368 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.