SchahvsschämtWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#38,385
“Schah” frequency rank
#22,884
“schämt” frequency rank
61269
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Schah schämt
Definition persischer, afghanischer, nordindischer sowie osmanischer Herrschertitel 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs schämen

Where the eye mixes Schah and schämt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Schah runs 5 letters (CCCVC) against schämt's 6 (CCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Schah
6 ch
schämt

Visual trap between Schah and schämt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Schah is [ʃaː] while schämt is [ʃɛːmt]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61269, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Schah is recorded at frequency rank #38,385, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʃaː]. schämt is at rank #22,884, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃɛːmt].

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 61269, this pair ranks #756,076 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Schah vs schämt

Shared letters: chs. Private to "Schah": a. Private to "schämt": mtä.

"Schah" · 5 letters · shape CCCVC  ·  "schämt" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Schah ← cshah · scahh · scchah · schahh · schha · schhah · shcah · sschah

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Schah" and "schämt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Schah" is a noun and "schämt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Schah" or "schämt" show up more?
"schämt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,884 in our German list, against #38,385 for "Schah". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Schah" and "schämt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Schah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "schämt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #756,076 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Schah" and "schämt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Schah vs Schalk". 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 #756,076 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