spät vs sta, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#1,335
“spät” frequency rank: #18,707
“sta” frequency rank: 20042
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	spät	sta
Definition	zeitlich fortgeschritten, kurz vor Schluss, gegen Ende	Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs star (unabhängig von Person und Numerus)

Letter map: spät vs sta

Shared letters muted; letters that set spät and sta apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

spät

3 ch

sta

Role in the sentence - spät and sta

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: spät is anadjective and staaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20042, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spät is recorded at frequency rank #1,335, classified as anadj, pronounced [ʃpɛːt]. sta is at rank #18,707, 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 20042, this pair ranks #1,901,917 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of spät vs sta

Shared letters: st. Private to "spät": pä. Private to "sta": a.

"spät" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "sta" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "spät" and "sta" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "spät" is an adjective and "sta" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "spät" or "sta" show up more?

"spät" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,335 in our German list, against #18,707 for "sta". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "spät" and "sta".

Full dictionary entry for "spät" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,901,917 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"spät" and "sta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs sta". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,901,917 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.