Which to use
“halten” is a verb and “Haltung” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #395
- “halten” frequency rank
- #2,546
- “Haltung” frequency rank
- 2941
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | halten | Haltung |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | etwas durch Kraftausübung in Ruhe belassen oder bringen | (bezüglich des Stehens, Gehens oder Sitzens) Art und Weise, den Körper, insbesondere das Rückgrat zu halten; Körperhaltung |
Where the eye mixes halten and Haltung
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. halten runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against Haltung's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: halten vs Haltung
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: halten is [ˈhaltn̩] while Haltung is [ˈhaltʊŋ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
halten is recorded at frequency rank #395, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhaltn̩]. Haltung is at rank #2,546, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaltʊŋ].
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 2941, this pair ranks #2,001,274 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of halten vs Haltung
Shared letters: ahlnt. Private to "halten": e. Private to "Haltung": gu.
"halten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "Haltung" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "halten" for "Haltung" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "halten" or "Haltung" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "halten" and "Haltung" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "halten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Haltung" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #2,001,274 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "halten" and "Haltung" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "halten vs harren". 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 #2,001,274 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.