SittevssteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#21,063
“Sitte” frequency rank
#25,778
“ste” frequency rank
46841
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sitte ste
Definition in der Gesellschaft durch Tradition, Brauch und/oder moralische/religiöse Gebote legitimierte soziale Norm 2. Person Plural Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs biti

Letter map: Sitte vs ste

Shared letters muted; letters that set Sitte and ste apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
Sitte
3 ch
ste

Role in the sentence - Sitte and ste

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Sitte is anoun and steaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46841, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sitte is recorded at frequency rank #21,063, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzɪtə]. ste is at rank #25,778, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 46841, this pair ranks #1,305,108 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Sitte vs ste

Shared letters: est. Private to "Sitte": i. Private to "ste": -.

"Sitte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "ste" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Sitteistte · sitet · ssitte · stite

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Sitte" and "ste" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sitte" is a noun and "ste" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Sitte" or "ste"?
"Sitte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,063 in our German list, against #25,778 for "ste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "Sitte" and "ste". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sitte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,305,108 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sitte" and "ste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs ste". 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 #1,305,108 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