PatevsPauleWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#19,335
“Pate” frequency rank
#47,642
“Paule” frequency rank
66977
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pate Paule
Definition Ehrenamt in christlichen Kirchen zur Unterstützung der Eltern bei der religiösen Erziehung und Zeuge bei einer Sakramentsspendung deutschsprachiger Nachname, Familienname

Letter map: Pate vs Paule

Shared letters muted; letters that set Pate and Paule apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Pate runs 4 letters (CVCV) against Paule's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Pate
5 ch
Paule

Part-of-speech tell for Pate / Paule

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Pate is anoun and Pauleaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66977, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pate is recorded at frequency rank #19,335, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaːtə]. Paule is at rank #47,642, tagged as aname, pronounced […].

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 66977, this pair ranks #555,362 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Pate vs Paule

Shared letters: aep. Private to "Pate": t. Private to "Paule": lu.

"Pate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Paule" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Pate ← apte · paet · patte · ppate · ptae
  • Paule ← apule · palue · pauel · paulle · ppaule · puale

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Pate" for "Paule" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pate" is a noun and "Paule" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Pate" or "Paule" show up more?
"Pate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,335 in our German list, against #47,642 for "Paule". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Pate" and "Paule".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Pate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Paule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #555,362 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pate" and "Paule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Paule vs puzzles". 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 #555,362 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