parsvsPateTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#47,639
“pars” frequency rank
#19,335
“Pate” frequency rank
66974
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pars Pate
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs parsen Ehrenamt in christlichen Kirchen zur Unterstützung der Eltern bei der religiösen Erziehung und Zeuge bei einer Sakramentsspendung

Where the eye mixes pars and Pate

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pars (CVCC) and Pate (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
pars
4 ch
Pate

Visual trap between pars and Pate

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pars is [paʁs] while Pate is [ˈpaːtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66974, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pars is recorded at frequency rank #47,639, classified as averb, pronounced [paʁs]. 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 66974, this pair ranks #555,467 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pars vs Pate

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pars": rs. Private to "Pate": et.

"pars" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Pate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pars ← aprs · parrs · parss · pasr · ppars · pras
  • Pate ← apte · paet · patte · ppate · ptae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pars" for "Pate" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pars" is a verb and "Pate" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pars" vs "Pate" - which ranks higher?
"Pate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,335 in our German list, against #47,639 for "pars". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pars" 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 #555,467 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pars" and "Pate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pars vs PMS". 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 #555,467 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