SätzevsskateWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#4,232
“Sätze” frequency rank
#45,585
“skate” frequency rank
49817
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sätze skate
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Satz 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs skaten

Where the eye mixes Sätze and skate

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Sätze (CVCCV) and skate (CCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
Sätze
5 ch
skate

Why the eye confuses Sätze with skate

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Sätze is [ˈzɛt͡sə] while skate is [ˈskɛɪ̯tə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49817, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sätze is recorded at frequency rank #4,232, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzɛt͡sə]. skate is at rank #45,585, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈskɛɪ̯tə].

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 49817, this pair ranks #1,197,243 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Sätze vs skate

Shared letters: est. Private to "Sätze": zä. Private to "skate": ak.

"Sätze" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "skate" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • skate ← sakte · skaet · skatte · skkate · sktae · sskate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Sätze" and "skate" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sätze" is a noun and "skate" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Sätze" or "skate" show up more?
"Sätze" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,232 in our German list, against #45,585 for "skate". 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 "Sätze" and "skate" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sätze" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "skate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,197,243 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sätze" and "skate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "skate vs Späth". 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 #1,197,243 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