HaftvshärteTell them apart

Quick tell: Haft is a noun, härte is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Haft” is a noun and “härte” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,742
“Haft” frequency rank
#9,738
“härte” frequency rank
13480
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Haft härte
Definition Zustand des Verhaftetseins 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs härten

Where the eye mixes Haft and härte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Haft runs 4 letters (CVCC) against härte's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Haft
5 ch
härte

Look-alike desk: Haft vs härte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Haft is [haft] while härte is [ˈhɛʁtə]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13480, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Haft is recorded at frequency rank #3,742, classified as anoun, pronounced [haft]. härte is at rank #9,738, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhɛʁtə].

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 13480, this pair ranks #1,957,724 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Haft vs härte

Shared letters: ht. Private to "Haft": af. Private to "härte": erä.

"Haft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "härte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Haft ← ahft · hafft · haftt · hatf · hfat · hhaft

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Haft" and "härte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Haft" is a noun and "härte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Haft" or "härte" show up more?
"Haft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,742 in our German list, against #9,738 for "härte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Haft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "härte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,957,724 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Haft" and "härte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hähne vs härte". 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 #1,957,724 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