sachtvsstachWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sacht is a adjective, stach is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#42,102
“sacht” frequency rank
#22,901
“stach” frequency rank
65003
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sacht stach
Definition sehr schwach ausgeprägt oder auch sehr langsam und deshalb kaum zu merken 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs stechen

Where the eye mixes sacht and stach

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sacht (CVCCC) and stach (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
sacht
5 ch
stach

Look-alike desk: sacht vs stach

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sacht is [zaxt] while stach is [ʃtaːx]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65003, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sacht is recorded at frequency rank #42,102, classified as anadj, pronounced [zaxt]. stach is at rank #22,901, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃtaːx].

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 65003, this pair ranks #621,865 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sacht vs stach

Shared letters: achst. Private to "sacht": -. Private to "stach": -.

"sacht" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "stach" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sacht ← ascht · saccht · sachht · sachtt · sacth · sahct · scaht · ssacht
  • stach ← satch · sstach · stacch · stachh · stahc · stcah · sttach · tsach

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sacht" and "stach" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sacht" is an adjective and "stach" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "sacht" or "stach" show up more?
"stach" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,901 in our German list, against #42,102 for "sacht". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sacht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stach" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #621,865 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sacht" and "stach" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sacher vs sacht". 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 #621,865 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