holvshotelTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#5,270
“hol” frequency rank
#1,060
“hotel” frequency rank
6330
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hol hotel
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs holen Hotel

Where the eye mixes hol and hotel

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
hol
5 ch
hotel

Look-alike desk: hol vs hotel

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hol is [hoːl] while hotel is [ɦuˈtɛɫ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6330, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hol is recorded at frequency rank #5,270, classified as averb, pronounced [hoːl]. hotel is at rank #1,060, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɦuˈtɛɫ].

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 6330, this pair ranks #1,992,008 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hol vs hotel

Shared letters: hlo. Private to "hol": -. Private to "hotel": et.

"hol" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hotel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hotelhhotel · hoetl · hotell · hotle · hottel · htoel · ohtel

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hol" and "hotel" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hol" is a verb and "hotel" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "hol" or "hotel" show up more?
"hotel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,060 in our German list, against #5,270 for "hol". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hol" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hotel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,992,008 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hol" and "hotel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heel vs hol". 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 #1,992,008 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