SchottervsschüttenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#24,915
“Schotter” frequency rank
#30,759
“schütten” frequency rank
55674
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Schotter schütten
Definition grobes Steinmaterial, welches zum Auffüllen verwendet wird (zum Beispiel kantige Steine für die Trasse beim Gleisbau) oder in der Natur vorkommt (zum Beispiel gerundete Steine in einem Bachbett) etwas durch starkes Kippen aus einem Gefäß entfernen

Where the eye mixes Schotter and schütten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Schotter and schütten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
Schotter
8 ch
schütten

Why the eye confuses Schotter with schütten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Schotter is [ˈʃɔtɐ] while schütten is [ˈʃʏtn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 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 55674, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Schotter is recorded at frequency rank #24,915, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃɔtɐ]. schütten is at rank #30,759, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃʏtn̩].

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 55674, this pair ranks #970,327 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Schotter vs schütten

Shared letters: cehst. Private to "Schotter": or. Private to "schütten": nü.

"Schotter" · 8 letters · shape CCCVCCVC  ·  "schütten" · 8 letters · shape CCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Schotter ← cshotter · scchotter · schhotter · schoter · schotetr · schotterr · schottre · schtoter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Schotter" for "schütten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Schotter" is a noun and "schütten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Schotter" or "schütten"?
"Schotter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,915 in our German list, against #30,759 for "schütten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Schotter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "schütten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #970,327 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Schotter" and "schütten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "schütt vs schütten". 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 #970,327 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