haltenvshassenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#395
“halten” frequency rank
#4,617
“hassen” frequency rank
5012
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature halten hassen
Definition etwas durch Kraftausübung in Ruhe belassen oder bringen feindselige Gefühle gegen jemanden, etwas hegen

Where the eye mixes halten and hassen

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

6 ch
halten
6 ch
hassen

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. halten ([ˈhaltn̩]) and hassen ([ˈhasn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5012, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

halten is recorded at frequency rank #395, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhaltn̩]. hassen is at rank #4,617, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhasn̩].

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 5012, this pair ranks #1,996,037 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of halten vs hassen

Shared letters: aehn. Private to "halten": lt. Private to "hassen": s.

"halten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "hassen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • haltenahlten · haletn · hallten · haltenn · haltne · haltten · hatlen · hhalten
  • hassenahssen · hasesn · hassenn · hassne · haßen · hhassen · hsasen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "halten" and "hassen" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhaltn̩] versus [ˈhasn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "halten" or "hassen"?
"halten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #395 in our German list, against #4,617 for "hassen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "halten" and "hassen". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "halten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hassen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,996,037 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "halten" and "hassen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "harren vs hassen". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list