StaatevsstartetWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#36,640
“Staate” frequency rank
#2,616
“startet” frequency rank
39256
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Staate startet
Definition Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Staat 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs starten

Where the eye mixes Staate and startet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Staate
7 ch
startet

Visual trap between Staate and startet

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Staate is [ˈʃtaːtə] 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39256, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Staate is recorded at frequency rank #36,640, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtaːtə]. 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 39256, this pair ranks #1,541,724 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Staate vs startet

Shared letters: aest. Private to "Staate": -. Private to "startet": r.

"Staate" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "startet" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Staatesatate · sstaate · staaet · staatte · statae · sttaate · tsaate
  • startetsatrtet · sstartet · starett · starrtet · startett · startte · starttet · statret

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Staate" and "startet" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Staate" is a noun and "startet" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Staate" or "startet" show up more?
"startet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,616 in our German list, against #36,640 for "Staate". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Staate" 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 #1,541,724 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Staate" and "startet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Staate 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 #1,541,724 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