sachtvsstehtWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#42,102
“sacht” frequency rank
#194
“steht” frequency rank
42296
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sacht steht
Definition sehr schwach ausgeprägt oder auch sehr langsam und deshalb kaum zu merken 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs stehen

Where the eye mixes sacht and steht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
sacht
5 ch
steht

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sacht is [zaxt] while steht is [ʃteːt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42296, 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]. steht is at rank #194, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃteːt].

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 42296, this pair ranks #1,453,789 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sacht vs steht

Shared letters: hst. Private to "sacht": ac. Private to "steht": e.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sachtascht · saccht · sachht · sachtt · sacth · sahct · scaht · ssacht
  • stehtsetht · ssteht · stehht · stehtt · steth · sthet · stteht · tseht

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sacht" and "steht" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sacht" is an adjective and "steht" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sacht" or "steht"?
"steht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #194 in our German list, against #42,102 for "sacht". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "sacht" and "steht". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sacht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "steht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,453,789 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sacht" and "steht" 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list