haltevsholdeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,390
“halte” frequency rank
#45,352
“holde” frequency rank
46742
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature halte holde
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs halten Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs hold

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set halte and holde apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
halte
5 ch
holde

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: halte is [ˈhaltə] while holde is [ˈhɔldə]. 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 46742, 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]. holde is at rank #45,352, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈhɔldə].

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 46742, this pair ranks #1,308,605 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of halte vs holde

Shared letters: ehl. Private to "halte": at. Private to "holde": do.

"halte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "holde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • halteahlte · halet · hallte · haltte · hatle · hhalte · hlate
  • holdehholde · hlode · hodle · holdde · holed · hollde · ohlde

Frequency comparison

halte#1,390
holde#45,352

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "halte" and "holde" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "halte" is a verb and "holde" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "halte" or "holde"?
"halte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,390 in our German list, against #45,352 for "holde". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering halte vs holde

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “halte”; for an adjective, it's “holde”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “halte” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list