schielevsSchneeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#38,389
“schiele” frequency rank
#2,917
“Schnee” frequency rank
41306
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature schiele Schnee
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs schielen Niederschlag in Form von Eiskristallen

Where the eye mixes schiele and Schnee

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
schiele
6 ch
Schnee

Look-alike desk: schiele vs Schnee

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: schiele is [ˈʃiːlə] while Schnee is [ʃneː]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41306, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

schiele is recorded at frequency rank #38,389, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʃiːlə]. Schnee is at rank #2,917, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʃneː].

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 41306, this pair ranks #1,483,397 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of schiele vs Schnee

Shared letters: cehs. Private to "schiele": il. Private to "Schnee": n.

"schiele" · 7 letters · shape CCCVVCV  ·  "Schnee" · 6 letters · shape CCCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • schielecshiele · scchiele · scheile · schhiele · schieel · schielle · schilee · scihele
  • Schneecshnee · scchnee · schene · schhnee · schne · schnnee · scnhee · shcnee

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "schiele" and "Schnee" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "schiele" is a verb and "Schnee" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "schiele" or "Schnee" show up more?
"Schnee" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,917 in our German list, against #38,389 for "schiele". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "schiele" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Schnee" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,483,397 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "schiele" and "Schnee" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "schiele vs Schmiere". 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 #1,483,397 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