passtevsposteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#10,719
“passte” frequency rank
#13,669
“poste” frequency rank
24388
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature passte poste
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs passen 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs posen

Where the eye mixes passte and poste

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

6 ch
passte
5 ch
poste

Visual trap between passte and poste

A purely visual mix-up. passte ([ˈpastə]) and poste ([ˈpoːstə]) 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 24388, 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]. poste is at rank #13,669, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpoːstə].

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 24388, this pair ranks #1,848,353 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of passte vs poste

Shared letters: epst. Private to "passte": a. Private to "poste": o.

"passte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "poste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • passteapsste · passet · passtte · pastse · paßte · ppasste · psaste
  • posteopste · poset · posste · potse · pposte · psote

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "passte" and "poste" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpastə] versus [ˈpoːstə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "passte" or "poste" show up more?
"passte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,719 in our German list, against #13,669 for "poste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "passte" and "poste" 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 "poste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,848,353 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "passte" and "poste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poste vs postete". 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 #1,848,353 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