SaldovssaleConfusable pair

Which to use

“Saldo” and “sale” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#38,380
“Saldo” frequency rank
#13,472
“sale” frequency rank
51852
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Saldo sale
Definition die Differenz zwischen der Soll- und der Habenseite eines Kontos Transaktion Ware gegen Geld: Verkauf

Where the eye mixes Saldo and sale

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

5 ch
Saldo
4 ch
sale

Visual trap between Saldo and sale

A purely visual mix-up. Saldo ([ˈzaldo]) and sale ([seɪl]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51852, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Saldo is recorded at frequency rank #38,380, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzaldo]. sale is at rank #13,472, tagged as anoun, pronounced [seɪl].

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 51852, this pair ranks #1,119,530 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Saldo vs sale

Shared letters: als. Private to "Saldo": do. Private to "sale": e.

"Saldo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "sale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Saldoasldo · sadlo · salddo · salldo · salod · slado · ssaldo
  • saleasle · sael · slae · ssale

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Saldo" for "sale" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈzaldo] versus [seɪl]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Saldo" or "sale"?
"sale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,472 in our German list, against #38,380 for "Saldo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Saldo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sale" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,119,530 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Saldo" and "sale" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Saldo vs sands". 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 #1,119,530 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