decktevsdevoteConfusable pair

Quick tell: deckte is a verb, devote is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“deckte” is a verb and “devote” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,997
“deckte” frequency rank
#49,581
“devote” frequency rank
79578
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deckte devote
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs decken Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs devot

Where the eye mixes deckte and devote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
deckte
6 ch
devote

Why the eye confuses deckte with devote

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: deckte is [ˈdɛktə] while devote is [deˈvoːtə]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79578, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deckte is recorded at frequency rank #29,997, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈdɛktə]. devote is at rank #49,581, tagged as anadj, pronounced [deˈvoːtə].

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 79578, this pair ranks #213,555 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of deckte vs devote

Shared letters: det. Private to "deckte": ck. Private to "devote": ov.

"deckte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "devote" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • decktedcekte · ddeckte · decckte · decket · deckkte · decktte · dectke · dekcte
  • devoteddevote · deovte · devoet · devotte · devtoe · devvote · dveote · edvote

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "deckte" and "devote" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deckte" is a verb and "devote" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "deckte" or "devote" show up more?
"deckte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,997 in our German list, against #49,581 for "devote". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "deckte" and "devote" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "deckte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #213,555 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deckte" and "devote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devot vs devote". 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 #213,555 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