GesteinevsgesternConfusable pair

Quick tell: Gesteine is a noun, gestern is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Gesteine” is a noun and “gestern” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,072
“Gesteine” frequency rank
#617
“gestern” frequency rank
31689
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gesteine gestern
Definition Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Gestein am Tag unmittelbar vor dem heutigen Tag

Where the eye mixes Gesteine and gestern

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

8 ch
Gesteine
7 ch
gestern

Look-alike desk: Gesteine vs gestern

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gesteine is [ɡəˈʃtaɪ̯nə] while gestern is [ˈɡɛstɐn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31689, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gesteine is recorded at frequency rank #31,072, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈʃtaɪ̯nə]. gestern is at rank #617, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈɡɛstɐn].

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 31689, this pair ranks #1,723,094 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Gesteine vs gestern

Shared letters: egnst. Private to "Gesteine": i. Private to "gestern": r.

"Gesteine" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "gestern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Gesteineegsteine · gesetine · gessteine · gesteien · gesteinne · gestenie · gestiene · gestteine
  • gesternegstern · gesetrn · gesstern · gestenr · gesternn · gesterrn · gestren · gesttern

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Gesteine" for "gestern" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gesteine" is a noun and "gestern" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Gesteine" vs "gestern" - which ranks higher?
"gestern" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #617 in our German list, against #31,072 for "Gesteine". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gesteine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gestern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,723,094 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gesteine" and "gestern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gesteine vs Gesteinen". 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 #1,723,094 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