paidvsPateConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#44,122
“paid” frequency rank
#19,335
“Pate” frequency rank
63457
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paid Pate
Definition Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs pay Ehrenamt in christlichen Kirchen zur Unterstützung der Eltern bei der religiösen Erziehung und Zeuge bei einer Sakramentsspendung

Letter map: paid vs Pate

Shared letters muted; letters that set paid and Pate apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. paid (CVVC) and Pate (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
paid
4 ch
Pate

Part-of-speech tell for paid / Pate

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: paid is averb and Pateanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paid is recorded at frequency rank #44,122, classified as averb, pronounced […]. Pate is at rank #19,335, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaːtə].

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 63457, this pair ranks #676,195 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of paid vs Pate

Shared letters: ap. Private to "paid": di. Private to "Pate": et.

"paid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Pate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paid ← apid · padi · paidd · ppaid
  • Pate ← apte · paet · patte · ppate · ptae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "paid" and "Pate" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "paid" is a verb and "Pate" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "paid" or "Pate" show up more?
"Pate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,335 in our German list, against #44,122 for "paid". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "paid" and "Pate".

  • Full dictionary entry for "paid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Pate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #676,195 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paid" and "Pate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paid 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 #676,195 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