SakevssauerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Sake is a noun, sauer is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#47,710
“Sake” frequency rank
#3,769
“sauer” frequency rank
51479
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sake sauer
Definition japanisches alkoholisches Getränk, das aus mit Hefe vergorenem Reis hergestellt wird und heiß getrunken wird nach der grundlegende Geschmacksrichtung, die unreifem Obst, gestockter Milch, unter Luftabschluss vergorenem Kohl und durch Essigmutter zu Essig umgesetztem Alkohol gemeinsam ist kommend

Where the eye mixes Sake and sauer

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

4 ch
Sake
5 ch
sauer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Sake is [ˈzaːkə] while sauer is [ˈzaʊ̯ɐ]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51479, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sake is recorded at frequency rank #47,710, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzaːkə]. sauer is at rank #3,769, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈzaʊ̯ɐ].

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 51479, this pair ranks #1,134,002 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Sake vs sauer

Shared letters: aes. Private to "Sake": k. Private to "sauer": ru.

"Sake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sauer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Sakeaske · saek · sakke · skae · ssake
  • sauerasuer · saeur · sauerr · saure · ssauer · suaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Sake" and "sauer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sake" is a noun and "sauer" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Sake" or "sauer"?
"sauer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,769 in our German list, against #47,710 for "Sake". 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 "Sake" and "sauer". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sauer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,134,002 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sake" and "sauer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sake vs Sire". 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