Which to use
“shades” is a verb and “spätes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,790
- “shades” frequency rank
- #42,144
- “spätes” frequency rank
- 73934
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shades | spätes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs shade | Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs spät |
Letter map: shades vs spätes
Shared letters muted; letters that set shades and spätes apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for shades / spätes
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shades is averb and spätesanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73934, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shades is recorded at frequency rank #31,790, classified as averb, pronounced […]. spätes is at rank #42,144, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʃpɛːtəs].
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 73934, this pair ranks #347,028 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shades vs spätes
Shared letters: es. Private to "shades": adh. Private to "spätes": ptä.
"shades" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "spätes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- shades ← hsades · sahdes · shaddes · shadess · shadse · shaeds · shdaes · shhades
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shades" and "spätes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "shades" or "spätes"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "shades" and "spätes".
- Full dictionary entry for "shades" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spätes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #347,028 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shades" and "spätes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spätes vs Späth". 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 #347,028 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.