palovspattWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#38,939
“palo” frequency rank
#45,502
“patt” frequency rank
84441
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature palo patt
Definition Pfahl, Pfosten, Mast 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: palo vs patt

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

4 ch
palo
4 ch
patt

Grammar separator: palo vs patt

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: palo 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 84441, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

palo is recorded at frequency rank #38,939, 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 84441, this pair ranks #123,744 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of palo vs patt

Shared letters: ap. Private to "palo": lo. Private to "patt": t.

"palo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "patt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • palo ← aplo · pallo · paol · plao · ppalo
  • patt ← aptt · pat · ppatt · ptat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "palo" for "patt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "palo" is a noun and "patt" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "palo" vs "patt" - which ranks higher?
"palo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,939 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.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "palo" and "patt".

  • Full dictionary entry for "palo" 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 #123,744 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "palo" 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 #123,744 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