passtevspisstTell them apart

Which to use

“passte” and “pisst” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,719
“passte” frequency rank
#26,999
“pisst” frequency rank
37718
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature passte pisst
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs passen 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs pissen

Where the eye mixes passte and pisst

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
passte
5 ch
pisst

Look-alike desk: passte vs pisst

A purely visual mix-up. passte ([ˈpastə]) and pisst ([pɪst]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37718, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

passte is recorded at frequency rank #10,719, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpastə]. pisst is at rank #26,999, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɪst].

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 37718, this pair ranks #1,582,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of passte vs pisst

Shared letters: pst. Private to "passte": ae. Private to "pisst": i.

"passte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "pisst" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • passteapsste · passet · passtte · pastse · paßte · ppasste · psaste
  • pisstipsst · pisstt · pist · pists · pißt · ppisst · psist

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "passte" for "pisst" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpastə] versus [pɪst]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "passte" or "pisst"?
"passte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,719 in our German list, against #26,999 for "pisst". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "passte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pisst" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,582,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "passte" and "pisst" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pisst vs presst". 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 #1,582,851 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