Which to use
“shame” is a verb and “späte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,491
- “shame” frequency rank
- #11,757
- “späte” frequency rank
- 55248
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shame | späte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | jemanden beschämen | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs spät |
Letter map: shame vs späte
Shared letters muted; letters that set shame and späte apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. shame and späte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Grammar separator: shame vs späte
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shame is averb and späteanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55248, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shame is recorded at frequency rank #43,491, classified as averb, pronounced […]. späte is at rank #11,757, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʃpɛːtə].
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 55248, this pair ranks #986,924 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shame vs späte
Shared letters: es. Private to "shame": ahm. Private to "späte": ptä.
"shame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "späte" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- shame ← hsame · sahme · shaem · shamme · shhame · shmae · sshame
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "shame" for "späte" ever safe?
Frequency check: "shame" vs "späte" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've compared "shame" and "späte". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "shame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "späte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #986,924 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shame" and "späte" 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 #986,924 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.