Which to use
“matches” is a verb and “tears” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,983
- “matches” frequency rank
- #32,803
- “tears” frequency rank
- 50786
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | matches | tears |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs match | Plural des Substantivs tear |
Letter map: matches vs tears
Shared letters muted; letters that set matches and tears apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. matches runs 7 letters (CVCCCVC) against tears's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for matches / tears
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: matches is averb and tearsanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50786, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
matches is recorded at frequency rank #17,983, classified as averb, pronounced […]. tears is at rank #32,803, 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 50786, this pair ranks #1,160,533 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of matches vs tears
Shared letters: aest. Private to "matches": chm. Private to "tears": r.
"matches" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC · "tears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "matches" and "tears" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "matches" or "tears" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "matches" and "tears". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "matches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tears" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,160,533 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "matches" and "tears" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tears". 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 #1,160,533 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.