pairvspattTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#33,217
“pair” frequency rank
#45,502
“patt” frequency rank
78719
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pair patt
Definition der Vater 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

Letter map: pair vs patt

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

4 ch
pair
4 ch
patt

Part-of-speech tell for pair / patt

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pair is anoun and pattanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78719, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pair is recorded at frequency rank #33,217, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. 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 78719, this pair ranks #232,057 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pair vs patt

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pair": ir. Private to "patt": t.

"pair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "patt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pair ← apir · pairr · pari · piar · ppair
  • patt ← aptt · pat · ppatt · ptat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pair" and "patt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pair" is a noun and "patt" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pair" or "patt"?
"pair" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,217 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.

Useful next steps

Pair "pair" vs "patt" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pair" 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 #232,057 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pair" 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 #232,057 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