HallervshaltenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#14,317
“Haller” frequency rank
#395
“halten” frequency rank
14712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Haller halten
Definition Bewohner/Einwohner der nordrhein-westfälischen Stadt Halle etwas durch Kraftausübung in Ruhe belassen oder bringen

Where the eye mixes Haller and halten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Haller
6 ch
halten

Why the eye confuses Haller with halten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Haller is [ˈhalɐ] 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Haller is recorded at frequency rank #14,317, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhalɐ]. 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 14712, this pair ranks #1,949,275 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Haller vs halten

Shared letters: aehl. Private to "Haller": r. Private to "halten": nt.

"Haller" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "halten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hallerahller · halelr · haler · hallerr · hallre · hhaller · hlaler
  • haltenahlten · haletn · hallten · haltenn · haltne · haltten · hatlen · hhalten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Haller" for "halten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Haller" is a noun and "halten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Haller" vs "halten" - which ranks higher?
"halten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #395 in our German list, against #14,317 for "Haller". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "Haller" 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 #1,949,275 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Haller" and "halten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hader vs Haller". 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 #1,949,275 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