Which to use
“spannt” is a verb and “spät” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,318
- “spannt” frequency rank
- #1,335
- “spät” frequency rank
- 26653
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spannt | spät |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs spannen | zeitlich fortgeschritten, kurz vor Schluss, gegen Ende |
Where the eye mixes spannt and spät
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: spannt vs spät
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: spannt is [ʃpant] while spät is [ʃpɛːt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26653, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spannt is recorded at frequency rank #25,318, classified as averb, pronounced [ʃpant]. spät is at rank #1,335, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ʃpɛːt].
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 26653, this pair ranks #1,814,648 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of spannt vs spät
Shared letters: pst. Private to "spannt": an. Private to "spät": ä.
"spannt" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC · "spät" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- spannt ← psannt · sapnnt · spanntt · spant · spantn · spnant · sppannt · sspannt
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "spannt" and "spät" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "spannt" or "spät" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "spannt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spät" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,814,648 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spannt" and "spät" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spannt vs sparst". 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 #1,814,648 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.