shamevsSphäreWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#43,491
“shame” frequency rank
#25,320
“Sphäre” frequency rank
68811
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shame Sphäre
Definition jemanden beschämen Bezeichnung für Himmelskugel, Himmelsgewölbe

Letter map: shame vs Sphäre

Shared letters muted; letters that set shame and Sphäre apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
shame
6 ch
Sphäre

Part-of-speech tell for shame / Sphäre

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shame is averb and Sphäreanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68811, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shame is recorded at frequency rank #43,491, classified as averb, pronounced […]. Sphäre is at rank #25,320, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈsfɛːʁə].

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 68811, this pair ranks #496,105 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of shame vs Sphäre

Shared letters: ehs. Private to "shame": am. Private to "Sphäre": prä.

"shame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "Sphäre" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shamehsame · sahme · shaem · shamme · shhame · shmae · sshame

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shame" and "Sphäre" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shame" is a verb and "Sphäre" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "shame" or "Sphäre" show up more?
"Sphäre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,320 in our German list, against #43,491 for "shame". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "shame" vs "Sphäre" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sphäre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #496,105 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shame" and "Sphäre" 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 #496,105 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