chartervschattenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#40,460
“charter” frequency rank
#21,208
“chatten” frequency rank
61668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature charter chatten
Definition der Charterflug (vol charter); das Charterflugzeug (avion charter) an einem Chat in Chaträumen oder über Messenger teilnehmen

Where the eye mixes charter and chatten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
charter
7 ch
chatten

Visual trap between charter and chatten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: charter is [ʃaʁ.tɛʁ] while chatten is [ˈt͡ʃɛtn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

charter is recorded at frequency rank #40,460, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʃaʁ.tɛʁ]. chatten is at rank #21,208, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈt͡ʃɛtn̩].

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 61668, this pair ranks #741,095 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of charter vs chatten

Shared letters: aceht. Private to "charter": r. Private to "chatten": n.

"charter" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "chatten" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chartercahrter · ccharter · charetr · charrter · charterr · chartre · chartter · chatrer
  • chattencahtten · cchatten · chaten · chatetn · chattenn · chattne · chhatten · chtaten

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "charter" and "chatten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "charter" is a noun and "chatten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "charter" or "chatten"?
"chatten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,208 in our German list, against #40,460 for "charter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "charter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chatten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #741,095 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "charter" and "chatten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carte vs charter". 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 #741,095 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