röstenvsroteTell them apart

Quick tell: rösten is a verb, rote is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rösten” is a verb and “rote” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,557
“rösten” frequency rank
#1,901
“rote” frequency rank
47458
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rösten rote
Definition Flachs oder Hanf zum Gewinnen von Pflanzenfasern mürbe machen Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs rot

Where the eye mixes rösten and rote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. rösten runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against rote's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
rösten
4 ch
rote

Visual trap between rösten and rote

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rösten is [ˈʁœstn̩] while rote is [ˈʁoːtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47458, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rösten is recorded at frequency rank #45,557, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁœstn̩]. rote is at rank #1,901, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁoːtə].

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 47458, this pair ranks #1,283,513 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rösten vs rote

Shared letters: ert. Private to "rösten": nsö. Private to "rote": o.

"rösten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "rote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rote ← roet · rotte · rrote · rtoe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rösten" and "rote" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rösten" is a verb and "rote" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "rösten" or "rote" show up more?
"rote" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,901 in our German list, against #45,557 for "rösten". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "rösten" and "rote" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rösten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,283,513 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rösten" and "rote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rollten vs rösten". 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 #1,283,513 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