schafftvsSchaftTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#1,708
“schafft” frequency rank
#17,398
“Schaft” frequency rank
19106
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature schafft Schaft
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs schaffen ein Griff an einer Stange und an anderen länglichen Gegenständen

Same sound, different letters: schafft vs Schaft

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

7 ch
schafft
6 ch
Schaft

Same sound, different spelling - schafft / Schaft

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: schafft and Schaft carry the same recorded pronunciation, [ʃaft]. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19106, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

schafft is recorded at frequency rank #1,708, classified as averb, pronounced [ʃaft]. Schaft is at rank #17,398, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʃaft].

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 19106, this pair ranks #1,911,775 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of schafft vs Schaft

Shared letters: acfhst. Private to "schafft": -. Private to "Schaft": -.

"schafft" · 7 letters · shape CCCVCCC  ·  "Schaft" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • schafftcshafft · scahfft · scchafft · schafftt · schaftf · schfaft · schhafft · shcafft
  • Schaftcshaft · scahft · scchaft · schaftt · schatf · schfat · schhaft · shcaft

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "schafft" and "Schaft" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "schafft" is a verb and "Schaft" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "schafft" or "Schaft" show up more?
"schafft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,708 in our German list, against #17,398 for "Schaft". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "schafft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Schaft" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,911,775 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "schafft" and "Schaft" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Schaft vs schütt". 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 #1,911,775 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