PustevspustenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#37,146
“Puste” frequency rank
#35,395
“pusten” frequency rank
72541
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Puste pusten
Definition Fähigkeit von Lunge, Herz und Kreislauf, dem Körper Sauerstoff zu liefern durch plötzliches heftiges Ausatmen einen starken Luftstrom erzeugen

Where the eye mixes Puste and pusten

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

5 ch
Puste
6 ch
pusten

Why the eye confuses Puste with pusten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Puste is [ˈpuːstə] while pusten is [ˈpuːstn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Puste” sits inside “pusten”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Puste is recorded at frequency rank #37,146, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpuːstə]. 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 72541, this pair ranks #385,488 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Puste vs pusten

Shared letters: epstu. Private to "Puste": -. Private to "pusten": n.

"Puste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "pusten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Puste ← ppuste · psute · puset · pusste · pustte · putse · upste
  • pusten ← ppusten · psuten · pusetn · pussten · pustenn · pustne · pustten · putsen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Puste" and "pusten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Puste" is a noun and "pusten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Puste" vs "pusten" - which ranks higher?
"pusten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,395 in our German list, against #37,146 for "Puste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Puste" 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 #385,488 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Puste" and "pusten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "punta vs Puste". 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 #385,488 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