erhaltevserhaltenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“erhalte” and “erhalten” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,268
“erhalte” frequency rank
#418
“erhalten” frequency rank
10686
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature erhalte erhalten
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs erhalten etwas bekommen, empfangen

Where the eye mixes erhalte and erhalten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
erhalte
8 ch
erhalten

Visual trap between erhalte and erhalten

A purely visual mix-up. erhalte ([ɛɐ̯ˈhaltə]) and erhalten ([ɛɐ̯ˈhaltn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “erhalte” sits inside “erhalten”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

erhalte is recorded at frequency rank #10,268, classified as averb, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈhaltə]. erhalten is at rank #418, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈhaltn̩].

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 10686, this pair ranks #1,973,866 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of erhalte vs erhalten

Shared letters: aehlrt. Private to "erhalte": -. Private to "erhalten": n.

"erhalte" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "erhalten" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • erhalteehralte · erahlte · erhalet · erhallte · erhaltte · erhatle · erhhalte · erhlate
  • erhaltenehralten · erahlten · erhaletn · erhallten · erhaltenn · erhaltne · erhaltten · erhatlen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "erhalte" for "erhalten" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɛɐ̯ˈhaltə] versus [ɛɐ̯ˈhaltn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "erhalte" or "erhalten"?
"erhalten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #418 in our German list, against #10,268 for "erhalte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "erhalte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "erhalten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,973,866 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "erhalte" and "erhalten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "erhalte vs erhärtet". 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 #1,973,866 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