smartevsstartetConfusable pair

Quick tell: smarte is a adjective, startet is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“smarte” is an adjective and “startet” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,823
“smarte” frequency rank
#2,616
“startet” frequency rank
36439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature smarte startet
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs smart 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs starten

Where the eye mixes smarte and startet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. smarte runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against startet's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
smarte
7 ch
startet

Look-alike desk: smarte vs startet

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: smarte is [ˈsmaːɐ̯tə] while startet is [ˈʃtaʁtət]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

smarte is recorded at frequency rank #33,823, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈsmaːɐ̯tə]. startet is at rank #2,616, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtaʁtət].

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 36439, this pair ranks #1,615,589 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of smarte vs startet

Shared letters: aerst. Private to "smarte": m. Private to "startet": -.

"smarte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "startet" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • smarte ← msarte · samrte · smaret · smarrte · smartte · smatre · smmarte · smrate
  • startet ← satrtet · sstartet · starett · starrtet · startett · startte · starttet · statret

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "smarte" for "startet" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "smarte" is an adjective and "startet" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "smarte" or "startet"?
"startet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,616 in our German list, against #33,823 for "smarte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "smarte" and "startet" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "smarte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "startet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,615,589 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "smarte" and "startet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "smarte vs stärkte". 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 #1,615,589 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