HasevshatteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#10,295
“Hase” frequency rank
#91
“hatte” frequency rank
10386
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hase hatte
Definition Säugetier mit langen Ohren aus der Gattung Lepus, speziell der Feldhase 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs haben

Where the eye mixes Hase and hatte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Hase runs 4 letters (CVCV) against hatte's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Hase
5 ch
hatte

Visual trap between Hase and hatte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hase is [ˈhaːzə] while hatte is [ˈhatə]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10386, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hase is recorded at frequency rank #10,295, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaːzə]. hatte is at rank #91, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhatə].

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 10386, this pair ranks #1,975,404 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Hase vs hatte

Shared letters: aeh. Private to "Hase": s. Private to "hatte": t.

"Hase" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hatte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Haseahse · haes · hhase · hsae
  • hatteahtte · hate · hatet · hhatte · htate

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hase" for "hatte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hase" is a noun and "hatte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Hase" or "hatte"?
"hatte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #91 in our German list, against #10,295 for "Hase". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Hase" and "hatte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hase" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hatte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,975,404 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hase" and "hatte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hähne vs Hase". 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 #1,975,404 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