haltevshaltendWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“halte” and “haltend” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,390
“halte” frequency rank
#46,719
“haltend” frequency rank
48109
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature halte haltend
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs halten Partizip Präsens des Verbs halten

Where the eye mixes halte and haltend

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. halte runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against haltend's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
halte
7 ch
haltend

Visual trap between halte and haltend

A purely visual mix-up. halte ([ˈhaltə]) and haltend ([ˈhaltn̩t]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “halte” sits inside “haltend”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48109, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

halte is recorded at frequency rank #1,390, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhaltə]. haltend is at rank #46,719, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhaltn̩t].

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 48109, this pair ranks #1,260,510 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of halte vs haltend

Shared letters: aehlt. Private to "halte": -. Private to "haltend": dn.

"halte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "haltend" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • halte ← ahlte · halet · hallte · haltte · hatle · hhalte · hlate
  • haltend ← ahltend · haletnd · halltend · haltedn · haltendd · haltennd · haltned · halttend

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "halte" for "haltend" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhaltə] versus [ˈhaltn̩t]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "halte" vs "haltend" - which ranks higher?
"halte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,390 in our German list, against #46,719 for "haltend". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "halte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "haltend" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,260,510 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "halte" and "haltend" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "haltend 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 #1,260,510 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