passtenvspustenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#26,123
“passten” frequency rank
#35,395
“pusten” frequency rank
61518
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature passten pusten
Definition 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs passen durch plötzliches heftiges Ausatmen einen starken Luftstrom erzeugen

Where the eye mixes passten and pusten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
passten
6 ch
pusten

Visual trap between passten and pusten

A purely visual mix-up. passten ([ˈpastn̩]) and pusten ([ˈpuːstn̩]) 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 61518, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

passten is recorded at frequency rank #26,123, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpastn̩]. pusten is at rank #35,395, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpuːstn̩].

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 61518, this pair ranks #746,775 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of passten vs pusten

Shared letters: enpst. Private to "passten": a. Private to "pusten": u.

"passten" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "pusten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • passtenapssten · passetn · passtenn · passtne · passtten · pasten · pastsen · paßten
  • pustenppusten · psuten · pusetn · pussten · pustenn · pustne · pustten · putsen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "passten" and "pusten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpastn̩] versus [ˈpuːstn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "passten" or "pusten"?
"passten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,123 in our German list, against #35,395 for "pusten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "passten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pusten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #746,775 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "passten" and "pusten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pusten 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 #746,775 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