hattenvshustenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#278
“hatten” frequency rank
#10,111
“husten” frequency rank
10389
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hatten husten
Definition 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum des Verbs haben heftig Luft aus der Lunge ausstoßen

Where the eye mixes hatten and husten

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

6 ch
hatten
6 ch
husten

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. hatten ([ˈhatn̩]) and husten ([ˈhuːstn̩]) 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 10389, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hatten is recorded at frequency rank #278, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhatn̩]. husten is at rank #10,111, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhuːstn̩].

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 10389, this pair ranks #1,975,394 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hatten vs husten

Shared letters: ehnt. Private to "hatten": a. Private to "husten": su.

"hatten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "husten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hattenahtten · haten · hatetn · hattenn · hattne · hhatten · htaten
  • hustenhhusten · hsuten · husetn · hussten · hustenn · hustne · hustten · hutsen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hatten" and "husten" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhatn̩] versus [ˈhuːstn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hatten" or "husten"?
"hatten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #278 in our German list, against #10,111 for "husten". 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 "hatten" and "husten". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hatten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "husten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,975,394 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hatten" and "husten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Häuten vs husten". 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