SchachtvsschlechtTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#13,228
“Schacht” frequency rank
#649
“schlecht” frequency rank
13877
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Schacht schlecht
Definition hohler, meist senkrechter Raum nicht den Anforderungen oder Erwartungen entsprechend, weil mit Mängeln behaftet

Where the eye mixes Schacht and schlecht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Schacht
8 ch
schlecht

Why the eye confuses Schacht with schlecht

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Schacht is [ʃaxt] while schlecht is [ʃlɛçt]. 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 13877, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Schacht is recorded at frequency rank #13,228, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʃaxt]. schlecht is at rank #649, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ʃlɛçt].

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 13877, this pair ranks #1,955,059 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Schacht vs schlecht

Shared letters: chst. Private to "Schacht": a. Private to "schlecht": el.

"Schacht" · 7 letters · shape CCCVCCC  ·  "schlecht" · 8 letters · shape CCCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Schachtcshacht · scahcht · scchacht · schaccht · schachht · schachtt · schacth · schahct
  • schlechtcshlecht · scchlecht · schelcht · schhlecht · schlceht · schleccht · schlechht · schlechtt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Schacht" and "schlecht" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Schacht" is a noun and "schlecht" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Schacht" or "schlecht" show up more?
"schlecht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #649 in our German list, against #13,228 for "Schacht". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Schacht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "schlecht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,955,059 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Schacht" and "schlecht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Schacht vs schallt". 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 #1,955,059 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