Which to use
“passte” is a verb and “piste” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,719
- “passte” frequency rank
- #17,679
- “piste” frequency rank
- 28398
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passte | piste |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs passen | Punkt |
Where the eye mixes passte and piste
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between passte and piste
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: passte is [ˈpastə] while piste is [ˈpiste]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28398, 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]. piste is at rank #17,679, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpiste].
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 28398, this pair ranks #1,785,481 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passte vs piste
Shared letters: epst. Private to "passte": a. Private to "piste": i.
"passte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "piste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "passte" and "piste" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "passte" or "piste"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "passte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "piste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,785,481 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passte" and "piste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piste vs pustet". 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 #1,785,481 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.