gesternvsgestörtWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#617
“gestern” frequency rank
#4,889
“gestört” frequency rank
5506
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gestern gestört
Definition am Tag unmittelbar vor dem heutigen Tag in einer zwischenmenschlichen Beziehung beeinträchtigt sein

Where the eye mixes gestern and gestört

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
gestern
7 ch
gestört

Look-alike desk: gestern vs gestört

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gestern is [ˈɡɛstɐn] while gestört is [ɡəˈʃtøːɐ̯t]. 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 (adverb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5506, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gestern is recorded at frequency rank #617, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈɡɛstɐn]. gestört is at rank #4,889, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈʃtøːɐ̯t].

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 5506, this pair ranks #1,994,549 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gestern vs gestört

Shared letters: egrst. Private to "gestern": n. Private to "gestört": ö.

"gestern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "gestört" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gesternegstern · gesetrn · gesstern · gestenr · gesternn · gesterrn · gestren · gesttern

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gestern" and "gestört" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gestern" is an adverb and "gestört" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "gestern" or "gestört" show up more?
"gestern" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #617 in our German list, against #4,889 for "gestört". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gestern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gestört" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,994,549 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gestern" and "gestört" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gestört vs gestörten". 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 #1,994,549 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