Which to use
“erholen” is a verb and “erholte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,466
- “erholen” frequency rank
- #33,570
- “erholte” frequency rank
- 44036
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | erholen | erholte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | sich entspannen | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs erholt |
Where the eye mixes erholen and erholte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. erholen (VCCVCVC) and erholte (VCCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses erholen with erholte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: erholen is [ɛɐ̯ˈhoːlən] while erholte is [ɛɐ̯ˈhoːltə]. 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 44036, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
erholen is recorded at frequency rank #10,466, classified as averb, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈhoːlən]. erholte is at rank #33,570, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɛɐ̯ˈhoːltə].
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 44036, this pair ranks #1,399,098 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of erholen vs erholte
Shared letters: ehlor. Private to "erholen": n. Private to "erholte": t.
"erholen" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC · "erholte" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "erholen" for "erholte" ever safe?
Frequency check: "erholen" vs "erholte" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "erholen" and "erholte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "erholen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "erholte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,399,098 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "erholen" and "erholte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "erholte vs ertönte". 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 #1,399,098 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.