haftetvshartesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#14,316
“haftet” frequency rank
#12,731
“hartes” frequency rank
27047
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature haftet hartes
Definition 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs haften Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs hart

Where the eye mixes haftet and hartes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. haftet and hartes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
haftet
6 ch
hartes

Why the eye confuses haftet with hartes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: haftet is [ˈhaftət] while hartes is [ˈhaʁtəs]. 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 27047, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

haftet is recorded at frequency rank #14,316, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhaftət]. hartes is at rank #12,731, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈhaʁtəs].

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 27047, this pair ranks #1,808,194 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of haftet vs hartes

Shared letters: aeht. Private to "haftet": f. Private to "hartes": rs.

"haftet" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "hartes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • haftet ← ahftet · hafett · hafftet · haftett · haftte · hafttet · hatfet · hfatet
  • hartes ← ahrtes · harets · harrtes · hartess · hartse · harttes · hatres · hhartes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "haftet" and "hartes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "haftet" is a verb and "hartes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "haftet" vs "hartes" - which ranks higher?
"hartes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,731 in our German list, against #14,316 for "haftet". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "haftet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hartes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,808,194 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "haftet" and "hartes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "haftet vs Häuten". 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 #1,808,194 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