SpäthvssprachWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#47,741
“Späth” frequency rank
#1,460
“sprach” frequency rank
49201
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Späth sprach
Definition deutscher Nachname, Familienname 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs sprechen

Letter map: Späth vs sprach

Shared letters muted; letters that set Späth and sprach apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
Späth
6 ch
sprach

Role in the sentence - Späth and sprach

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Späth is aname and sprachaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49201, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Späth is recorded at frequency rank #47,741, classified as aname, pronounced […]. sprach is at rank #1,460, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃpʁaːx].

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 49201, this pair ranks #1,220,325 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Späth vs sprach

Shared letters: hps. Private to "Späth": . Private to "sprach": acr.

"Späth" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "sprach" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sprachpsrach · sparch · spprach · spracch · sprachh · sprahc · sprcah · sprrach

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Späth" for "sprach" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Späth" is a name and "sprach" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Späth" vs "sprach" - which ranks higher?
"sprach" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,460 in our German list, against #47,741 for "Späth". 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 "Späth" and "sprach".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Späth" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sprach" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,220,325 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Späth" and "sprach" 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 #1,220,325 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