BartelsvsbatesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Bartels is a noun, bates is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Bartels” is a noun and “bates” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,631
“Bartels” frequency rank
#34,536
“bates” frequency rank
59167
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Bartels bates
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Bartel 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs bate

Letter map: Bartels vs bates

Shared letters muted; letters that set Bartels and bates apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
Bartels
5 ch
bates

Grammar separator: Bartels vs bates

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Bartels is anoun and batesaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bartels is recorded at frequency rank #24,631, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbaʁtl̩s]. bates is at rank #34,536, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 59167, this pair ranks #834,706 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Bartels vs bates

Shared letters: abest. Private to "Bartels": lr. Private to "bates": -.

"Bartels" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "bates" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Bartelsabrtels · baretls · barrtels · bartells · bartelss · bartesl · bartles · barttels
  • batesbatess · batse · battes · bbates · btaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Bartels" and "bates" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Bartels" is a noun and "bates" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Bartels" or "bates" show up more?
"Bartels" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,631 in our German list, against #34,536 for "bates". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "Bartels" and "bates". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Bartels" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bates" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #834,706 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bartels" and "bates" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bates vs puzzles". 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 #834,706 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