BaselvsbatesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#3,171
“Basel” frequency rank
#34,536
“bates” frequency rank
37707
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Basel bates
Definition eine Stadt in der Schweiz 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs bate

Letter map: Basel vs bates

Shared letters muted; letters that set Basel and bates apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
Basel
5 ch
bates

Part-of-speech tell for Basel / bates

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Basel is aname and batesaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37707, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Basel is recorded at frequency rank #3,171, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈbaːzl̩]. 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 37707, this pair ranks #1,583,162 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Basel vs bates

Shared letters: abes. Private to "Basel": l. Private to "bates": t.

"Basel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "bates" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Baselabsel · baesl · basell · basle · bassel · bbasel · bsael
  • batesbatess · batse · battes · bbates · btaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Basel" for "bates" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Basel" is a name and "bates" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Basel" or "bates" show up more?
"Basel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,171 in our German list, against #34,536 for "bates". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Basel" 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 #1,583,162 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Basel" 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 #1,583,162 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