Which to use
“hatte” is a verb and “Hirte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #91
- “hatte” frequency rank
- #27,772
- “Hirte” frequency rank
- 27863
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hatte | Hirte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs haben | Besitzer und Hüter einer Tierherde |
Where the eye mixes hatte and Hirte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: hatte vs Hirte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hatte is [ˈhatə] while Hirte is [ˈhɪʁtə]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27863, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hatte is recorded at frequency rank #91, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhatə]. Hirte is at rank #27,772, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɪʁtə].
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 27863, this pair ranks #1,794,599 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hatte vs Hirte
Shared letters: eht. Private to "hatte": a. Private to "Hirte": ir.
"hatte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "Hirte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hatte" and "Hirte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "hatte" or "Hirte" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "hatte" and "Hirte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hatte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Hirte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,794,599 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hatte" and "Hirte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hide vs Hirte". 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 #1,794,599 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.