HeldtvshelftWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Heldt is a name, helft is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Heldt” is a name and “helft” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,702
“Heldt” frequency rank
#9,042
“helft” frequency rank
37744
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Heldt helft
Definition Familienname 2. Person Plural Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs helfen

Where the eye mixes Heldt and helft

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

5 ch
Heldt
5 ch
helft

Look-alike desk: Heldt vs helft

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Heldt is [hɛlt] while helft is [hɛlft]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “Heldt” becomes f in “helft”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37744, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Heldt is recorded at frequency rank #28,702, classified as aname, pronounced [hɛlt]. helft is at rank #9,042, tagged as averb, pronounced [hɛlft].

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 37744, this pair ranks #1,582,151 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Heldt vs helft

Shared letters: ehlt. Private to "Heldt": d. Private to "helft": f.

"Heldt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "helft" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Heldtehldt · hedlt · helddt · heldtt · helldt · heltd · hheldt · hledt
  • helftehlft · heflt · helfft · helftt · hellft · heltf · hhelft · hleft

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Heldt" and "helft" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Heldt" is a name and "helft" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Heldt" or "helft" show up more?
"helft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,042 in our German list, against #28,702 for "Heldt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Heldt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "helft" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,582,151 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Heldt" and "helft" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hel vs Heldt". 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 #1,582,151 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