sollvssollstWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“soll” and “sollst” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#121
“soll” frequency rank
#4,934
“sollst” frequency rank
5055
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature soll sollst
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sollen 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sollen

Where the eye mixes soll and sollst

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
soll
6 ch
sollst

Look-alike desk: soll vs sollst

A purely visual mix-up. soll ([zɔl]) and sollst ([zɔlst]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “soll” sits inside “sollst”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5055, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

soll is recorded at frequency rank #121, classified as averb, pronounced [zɔl]. sollst is at rank #4,934, tagged as averb, pronounced [zɔlst].

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 5055, this pair ranks #1,995,905 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of soll vs sollst

Shared letters: los. Private to "soll": -. Private to "sollst": t.

"soll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "sollst" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sollosll · slol · ssoll
  • sollstosllst · slolst · sollsst · sollstt · sollts · solslt · solst · ssollst

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "soll" for "sollst" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([zɔl] versus [zɔlst]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "soll" or "sollst"?
"soll" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #121 in our German list, against #4,934 for "sollst". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "soll" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sollst" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,995,905 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "soll" and "sollst" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sil vs soll". 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 #1,995,905 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