kidsvspaterConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#4,713
“kids” frequency rank
#8,439
“pater” frequency rank
13152
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kids pater
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs kid der Vater

Letter map: kids vs pater

Shared letters muted; letters that set kids and pater apart highlighted. No shared letter run. kids runs 4 letters (CVCC) against pater's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
kids
5 ch
pater

Role in the sentence - kids and pater

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: kids is averb and pateranoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13152, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kids is recorded at frequency rank #4,713, classified as averb, pronounced […]. pater is at rank #8,439, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 13152, this pair ranks #1,959,791 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of kids vs pater

Shared letters: none. Private to "kids": diks. Private to "pater": aeprt.

"kids" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pater" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kids ← ikds · kdis · kidds · kidss · kisd · kkids
  • pater ← apter · paetr · paterr · patre · patter · ppater · ptaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "kids" and "pater" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kids" is a verb and "pater" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "kids" or "pater" show up more?
"kids" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,713 in our German list, against #8,439 for "pater". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "kids" and "pater". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kids" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pater" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,959,791 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kids" and "pater" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pater vs puzzles". 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 #1,959,791 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