gestaltevsgestörteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#49,728
“gestalte” frequency rank
#28,220
“gestörte” frequency rank
77948
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gestalte gestörte
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs gestalten Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gestört

Where the eye mixes gestalte and gestörte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
gestalte
8 ch
gestörte

Visual trap between gestalte and gestörte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gestalte is [ɡəˈʃtaltə] while gestörte is [ɡəˈʃtøːɐ̯tə]. 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 77948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gestalte is recorded at frequency rank #49,728, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈʃtaltə]. gestörte is at rank #28,220, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈʃtøːɐ̯tə].

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 77948, this pair ranks #249,230 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gestalte vs gestörte

Shared letters: egst. Private to "gestalte": al. Private to "gestörte": .

"gestalte" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "gestörte" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gestalteegstalte · gesatlte · gesstalte · gestalet · gestallte · gestatle · gestlate · gesttalte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gestalte" for "gestörte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gestalte" is a verb and "gestörte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "gestalte" vs "gestörte" - which ranks higher?
"gestörte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,220 in our German list, against #49,728 for "gestalte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gestalte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gestörte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #249,230 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gestalte" and "gestörte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gemalte vs gestalte". 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 #249,230 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