shamevsStäbeConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#43,491
“shame” frequency rank
#35,472
“Stäbe” frequency rank
78963
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shame Stäbe
Definition jemanden beschämen Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Stab

Letter map: shame vs Stäbe

Shared letters muted; letters that set shame and Stäbe apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. shame and Stäbe 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
Stäbe

Part-of-speech tell for shame / Stäbe

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shame is averb and Stäbeanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78963, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shame is recorded at frequency rank #43,491, classified as averb, pronounced […]. Stäbe is at rank #35,472, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtɛːbə].

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 78963, this pair ranks #226,732 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of shame vs Stäbe

Shared letters: es. Private to "shame": ahm. Private to "Stäbe": btä.

"shame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "Stäbe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shame ← hsame · sahme · shaem · shamme · shhame · shmae · sshame

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shame" and "Stäbe" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shame" is a verb and "Stäbe" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "shame" or "Stäbe"?
"Stäbe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,472 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.

What to do next

Pair "shame" vs "Stäbe" 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 "Stäbe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #226,732 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shame" and "Stäbe" 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 #226,732 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