sachtevsSalateWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sachte is a adjective, Salate is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sachte” is an adjective and “Salate” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,435
“sachte” frequency rank
#37,180
“Salate” frequency rank
78615
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sachte Salate
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs sacht Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Salat

Where the eye mixes sachte and Salate

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

6 ch
sachte
6 ch
Salate

Visual trap between sachte and Salate

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sachte is [ˈzaxtə] while Salate is [zaˈlaːtə]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78615, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sachte is recorded at frequency rank #41,435, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈzaxtə]. Salate is at rank #37,180, tagged as anoun, pronounced [zaˈlaːtə].

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 78615, this pair ranks #234,329 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sachte vs Salate

Shared letters: aest. Private to "sachte": ch. Private to "Salate": l.

"sachte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "Salate" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sachte ← aschte · sacchte · sachet · sachhte · sachtte · sacthe · sahcte · scahte
  • Salate ← aslate · saalte · salaet · salatte · sallate · saltae · slaate · ssalate

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sachte" for "Salate" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sachte" is an adjective and "Salate" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sachte" vs "Salate" - which ranks higher?
"Salate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,180 in our German list, against #41,435 for "sachte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sachte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Salate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #234,329 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sachte" and "Salate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sacher vs sachte". 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 #234,329 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