KälbervskaltesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Kälber is a noun, kaltes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Kälber” is a noun and “kaltes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,665
“Kälber” frequency rank
#15,666
“kaltes” frequency rank
45331
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kälber kaltes
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Kalb Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs kalt

Where the eye mixes Kälber and kaltes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Kälber and kaltes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Kälber
6 ch
kaltes

Look-alike desk: Kälber vs kaltes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Kälber is [ˈkɛlbɐ] while kaltes is [ˈkaltəs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45331, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kälber is recorded at frequency rank #29,665, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkɛlbɐ]. kaltes is at rank #15,666, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈkaltəs].

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 45331, this pair ranks #1,356,669 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Kälber vs kaltes

Shared letters: ekl. Private to "Kälber": brä. Private to "kaltes": ast.

"Kälber" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "kaltes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kaltesakltes · kalets · kalltes · kaltess · kaltse · kalttes · katles · kkaltes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Kälber" and "kaltes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Kälber" is a noun and "kaltes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Kälber" vs "kaltes" - which ranks higher?
"kaltes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,666 in our German list, against #29,665 for "Kälber". 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 "Kälber" and "kaltes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kälber" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kaltes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,356,669 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kälber" and "kaltes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kälber vs kapier". 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 #1,356,669 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