shamevsskateConfusable pair

Which to use

“shame” and “skate” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,491
“shame” frequency rank
#45,585
“skate” frequency rank
89076
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shame skate
Definition jemanden beschämen 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs skaten

Letter map: shame vs skate

Shared letters muted; letters that set shame and skate apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. shame and skate follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
shame
5 ch
skate

Spelling & dictionary notes on shame vs skate

shame and skate are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89076, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shame is recorded at frequency rank #43,491, classified as averb, pronounced […]. skate is at rank #45,585, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈskɛɪ̯tə].

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 89076, this pair ranks #61,215 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of shame vs skate

Shared letters: aes. Private to "shame": hm. Private to "skate": kt.

"shame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "skate" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shame ← hsame · sahme · shaem · shamme · shhame · shmae · sshame
  • skate ← sakte · skaet · skatte · skkate · sktae · sskate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "shame" and "skate" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "shame" or "skate" show up more?
"shame" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,491 in our German list, against #45,585 for "skate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "shame" and "skate".

  • Full dictionary entry for "shame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "skate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,215 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shame" and "skate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs shame". 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 #61,215 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