pistevspustetConfusable pair

Quick tell: piste is a noun, pustet is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“piste” is a noun and “pustet” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,679
“piste” frequency rank
#46,216
“pustet” frequency rank
63895
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature piste pustet
Definition Punkt 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs pusten

Where the eye mixes piste and pustet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. piste runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against pustet's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
piste
6 ch
pustet

Why the eye confuses piste with pustet

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: piste is [ˈpiste] while pustet is [ˈpuːstət]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63895, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

piste is recorded at frequency rank #17,679, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpiste]. pustet is at rank #46,216, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpuːstət].

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 63895, this pair ranks #660,560 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of piste vs pustet

Shared letters: epst. Private to "piste": i. Private to "pustet": u.

"piste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "pustet" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • piste ← ipste · piset · pisste · pistte · pitse · ppiste · psite
  • pustet ← ppustet · psutet · pusett · pusstet · pustett · pusttet · putset · upstet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "piste" for "pustet" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "piste" is a noun and "pustet" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "piste" or "pustet" show up more?
"piste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,679 in our German list, against #46,216 for "pustet". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "piste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pustet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #660,560 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "piste" and "pustet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "postete 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 #660,560 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