skatevsSpäthTell them apart

Quick tell: skate is a verb, Späth is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“skate” is a verb and “Späth” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,585
“skate” frequency rank
#47,741
“Späth” frequency rank
93326
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature skate Späth
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs skaten deutscher Nachname, Familienname

Letter map: skate vs Späth

Shared letters muted; letters that set skate and Späth apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. skate (CCVCV) and Späth (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
skate
5 ch
Späth

Part-of-speech tell for skate / Späth

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: skate is averb and Späthaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93326, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

skate is recorded at frequency rank #45,585, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈskɛɪ̯tə]. Späth is at rank #47,741, tagged as aname, 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 93326, this pair ranks #23,566 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of skate vs Späth

Shared letters: st. Private to "skate": aek. Private to "Späth": hpä.

"skate" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "Späth" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • skate ← sakte · skaet · skatte · skkate · sktae · sskate

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "skate" for "Späth" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "skate" is a verb and "Späth" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "skate" vs "Späth" - which ranks higher?
"skate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,585 in our German list, against #47,741 for "Späth". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "skate" and "Späth". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "skate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Späth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,566 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "skate" and "Späth" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs Späth". 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 #23,566 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