PachtvspattWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#28,792
“Pacht” frequency rank
#45,502
“patt” frequency rank
74294
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pacht patt
Definition das vertraglich vereinbarte Überlassen einer Sache zur Nutzung und zum Gebrauch gegen Geld Im Schachspiel: nicht im Schach zu stehen, jedoch keinen regelgerechten Zug mehr ausführen können, ohne in ein Schach zu geraten; die Partie wird dann als unentschieden gewertet

Where the eye mixes Pacht and patt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Pacht runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against patt's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Pacht
4 ch
patt

Visual trap between Pacht and patt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Pacht is [paxt] while patt is [pat]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74294, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pacht is recorded at frequency rank #28,792, classified as anoun, pronounced [paxt]. patt is at rank #45,502, tagged as anadj, pronounced [pat].

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 74294, this pair ranks #337,240 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Pacht vs patt

Shared letters: apt. Private to "Pacht": ch. Private to "patt": -.

"Pacht" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "patt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Pacht ← apcht · paccht · pachht · pachtt · pahct · pcaht · ppacht
  • patt ← aptt · pat · ppatt · ptat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Pacht" and "patt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pacht" is a noun and "patt" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Pacht" vs "patt" - which ranks higher?
"Pacht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,792 in our German list, against #45,502 for "patt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Pacht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "patt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #337,240 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pacht" and "patt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "patt vs Pau". 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 #337,240 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