Which to use
“halber” is an adverb and “halten” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,726
- “halber” frequency rank
- #395
- “halten” frequency rank
- 9121
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | halber | halten |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | halb | etwas durch Kraftausübung in Ruhe belassen oder bringen |
Where the eye mixes halber and halten
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between halber and halten
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: halber is [ˈhalbɐ] while halten is [ˈhaltn̩]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9121, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
halber is recorded at frequency rank #8,726, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈhalbɐ]. halten is at rank #395, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhaltn̩].
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 9121, this pair ranks #1,981,382 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of halber vs halten
Shared letters: aehl. Private to "halber": br. Private to "halten": nt.
"halber" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "halten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "halber" for "halten" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "halber" or "halten" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "halber" and "halten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "halber" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "halten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,981,382 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "halber" and "halten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hader vs halber". 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 #1,981,382 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.