batesvsplantsConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#34,536
“bates” frequency rank
#49,962
“plants” frequency rank
84498
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bates plants
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs bate Plural des Substantivs plant

Letter map: bates vs plants

Shared letters muted; letters that set bates and plants apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. bates runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against plants's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
bates
6 ch
plants

Role in the sentence - bates and plants

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bates is averb and plantsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84498, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bates is recorded at frequency rank #34,536, classified as averb, pronounced […]. plants is at rank #49,962, tagged as anoun, 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 84498, this pair ranks #122,801 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bates vs plants

Shared letters: ast. Private to "bates": be. Private to "plants": lnp.

"bates" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "plants" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bates ← batess · batse · battes · bbates · btaes
  • plants ← lpants · palnts · plannts · plantss · plantts · platns · pllants · plnats

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bates" and "plants" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bates" is a verb and "plants" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "bates" or "plants"?
"bates" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,536 in our German list, against #49,962 for "plants". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bates" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "plants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #122,801 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bates" and "plants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plants 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 #122,801 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