merchvspasteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“merch” and “paste” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,807
“merch” frequency rank
#24,065
“paste” frequency rank
58872
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature merch paste
Definition Tochter Paste

Letter map: merch vs paste

Shared letters muted; letters that set merch and paste apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. merch (CVCCC) and paste (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
merch
5 ch
paste

Corpus notes: merch and paste

merch and paste are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

merch is recorded at frequency rank #34,807, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. paste is at rank #24,065, 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 58872, this pair ranks #846,074 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of merch vs paste

Shared letters: e. Private to "merch": chmr. Private to "paste": apst.

"merch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "paste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • merch ← emrch · mecrh · mercch · merchh · merhc · merrch · mmerch · mrech
  • paste ← apste · paset · pastte · patse · ppaste · psate

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "merch" for "paste" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "merch" vs "paste" - which ranks higher?
"paste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,065 in our German list, against #34,807 for "merch". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "merch" and "paste".

  • Full dictionary entry for "merch" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "paste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #846,074 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "merch" and "paste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "merch 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 #846,074 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