sagtevsSalateTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#311
“sagte” frequency rank
#37,180
“Salate” frequency rank
37491
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sagte Salate
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs sagen Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Salat

Where the eye mixes sagte and Salate

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
sagte
6 ch
Salate

Look-alike desk: sagte vs Salate

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sagte is [ˈzaːktə] while Salate is [zaˈlaːtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37491, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sagte is recorded at frequency rank #311, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈzaːktə]. 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 37491, this pair ranks #1,588,800 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sagte vs Salate

Shared letters: aest. Private to "sagte": g. Private to "Salate": l.

"sagte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Salate" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sagteasgte · saget · saggte · sagtte · satge · sgate · ssagte
  • Salateaslate · saalte · salaet · salatte · sallate · saltae · slaate · ssalate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sagte" and "Salate" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sagte" is a verb and "Salate" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "sagte" or "Salate" show up more?
"sagte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #311 in our German list, against #37,180 for "Salate". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sagte" 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 #1,588,800 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sagte" and "Salate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Salate vs slater". 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 #1,588,800 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